GENESIS 


A  Manual  for  the  Instruction  of   Children 
in  Matters  Sexual 

For  the  Use  of 

Parents,  Teachers,  Physicians  and  Ministers 

BY 

B.  S.  TALMEY,  M.  D. 

Former  Pathologist  to  the  Mothers'  and   Babies'  Hospital  and 
Gynecologist  to  the  Yorkville  Hospital.  New  York 


With  Nineteen  Cuts,  Forty-seven  Drawings,  in  the  Text 


THE   PRACTITIONERS'  PUBLISHING   CO. 

NEW   YORK 


Copyrighted,    1910 

by 
CECILIA    TALMEY 

New  York 


Dedicated  to  my  Baby  Daughter 

IRENE  V.  TALMEY 

The  Author 


or  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PREFACE 


A  CASUAL  conversation  with  a  relative 
whom  the  author  has  visited  in  a  New 
England  town,  was  the  incentive  for  the  writing 
of  "Genesis." 

She  accidentally  mentioned  that  her  eldest 
daughter  had  just  lately  reached  puberty.  When 
the  mother  was  asked  whether  the  significance 
of  the  phenomena  of  puberty  had  properly  been 
explained  to  the  child,  the  answer  was  that  she 
could  not  do  it,  and  that  whilst  the  necessity  of 
an  explanation  was  plain  to  her,  she  lacked  the 
requisite  knowledge  to  enlighten  her  child. 

Upon  his  return  to  New  York  the  author  be- 
gan to  ransack  the  great  libraries  of  the  metrop- 
olis in  search  of  a  book  of  instruction  in  sex 
matters,  which  he  could  send  to  his  friend.  He 
found  scores  of  such  books  full  of  high  moral 
sentiments,  and  teeming  with  excellent  sugges- 
tions for  the  instruction  of  the  child  on  this  sub- 
ject, but  nothing  quite  adequate  or  satisfying. 

The  writers  all  agree  on  the  necessity  of  in- 
structing the  young.  There  exist  only  some  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  about  the  instructor.  Some 


Vi  GENESIS 

maintain  that  the  parents  should  instruct  their 
children  while  they  are  still  at  home  with  them. 
Others  claim  that  the  teacher  in  school  and  the 
minister  in  Sunday  school  are  the  proper  guides 
in  these  matters.  Others  again  think  that  the 
family  physician  could  do  the  most  good  by  a 
few  serious  talks  to  boys  and  girls  before  they  go 
out  into  the  world  to  enter  college  or  a  business 
career.  But  somehowr  it  seemed  to  the  author 
that  all  the  treatises  he  has  had  the  opportunity 
to  read  were  more  or  less  polemic  in  character. 
The  suggestions  of  these  authors,  excellent  though 
they  be,  are  somewhat  general  in  their  scope  and 
a  little  too  vague  to  be  of  great  service. 

To  be  quite  frank,  the  majority  of  parents  are 
not  far  enough  advanced  in  culture  to  be  greatly 
served  by  a  few  hints.  They  need  a  detailed 
lesson.  Even  the  teachers  need  a  guide  to  follow. 
The  physician  knows  his  anatomy  and  physiology, 
but  is  deficient  in  pedagogy,  while  the  minister 
may  have  pedagogical  knowledge,  but  has  little  or 
no  knowledge  of  physiology  and  anatomy.  Thus 
all  the  four  natural  instructors  of  youth  need  a 
manual  to  guide  them  in  their  task. 

For  this  reason  the  author  has  set  out  to  supply 

the  want  by  writing  a  manual  for  the  instruction 
* 

of  children  in  matters  of  sex.  In  the  first,  the 
general,  part  the  author,  too,  has  tried  to  con- 
tribute his  mite  to  prove  the  necessity  of  instruct- 
ing the  young  in  sex  matters.  This  section  is 


PREFACE  Vii 

naturally  more  or  less  a  repetition  of  what  all 
the  other  authors  have  said  on  this  subject.  The 
five  lessons  in  the  second,  the  special  part, 
will  be  of  some  service  to  all  classes  of  instruc- 
tors. The  first  two  lessons  are,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  only  for  parents  or  guardians  of  in- 
fancy and  early  youth.  The  two  following  les- 
sons may  be  made  use  of  by  cultured  parents, 
but  they  were  written  mostly  as  a  guide  for  teach- 
ers. It  is  not  the  author's  intention  to  give  teach- 
ers lessons  in  botany  and  zoology.  It  is  presup- 
posed that  teachers  possess  the  proper  knowledge 
of  natural  history.  But  they  do  need  a  hint  in 
their  choice  of  that  part  of  this  science  which  will 
best  serve  the  particular  purpose.  The  fifth  les- 
son will  be  of  value  to  the  physician  in  his  talks 
to  the  growing  boys  and  girls  when  going  out  into 
the  world,  and  to  the  minister  of  the  gospel  while 
pro-paring  the  children  for  confirmation. 

XKW  YORK,  June  1910. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PART  I. 
GENERAL   LESSONS 

PAGE 

Introduction    9 

Chapter     1.     Prevailing  Silence  on  Sex  Mat- 
ters      17 

Chapter     2.     Ignorance  of  Parents 20 

Chapter     3.     The  Alleged  Evil  of  Education. .   22 
Chapter     4.     Impossibility  of  Maintaining  Ig- 
norance      28 

Chapter     5.     The  Necessity  of  Information.  .   36 

Chapter     6.     The  Evil  of  Ignorance 41 

Chapter     7.     The  Degradation  of  Sentiment . .   47 

Chapter     8.     Moral   Confusion 49 

Chapter     9.     The  Change  of  Policy 54 

PART  II. 
SPECIAL   LESSONS 

Chapter  10.     First   Lesson,   for   Infancy  and 

Early   Childhood 56 


X  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter  11.  Second  Lesson,  for  Children 

from  4  to  7  Years  of  Age.  .  65 

Chapter  12.  Third  Lesson,  for  Children  7  to 
10  Years  of  Age;  the  Ee- 
production  of  Plants 71 

Chapter  13.  Fourth  Lesson,  for  Children 
10  to  13  Years  of  Age;  the 
Reproduction  of  Animals.  .  90 

Chapter  14;  Fifth  Lesson,  for  Children  13 
to  16  Years  of  Age;  Men- 
struation, Pollution,  Mas- 
turbation    121 

Chapter  15.  Sixth  Lesson,  for  Children  16 
to  18  Years  of  Age;  Gonor- 
rhoea, Syphilis,  Continence..  139 

Bibliography    177 

Index    .  .183 


ARf 

THE 

UNIVERSITY 


INTRODUCTION 


"^T^O  the  Spirit,  to  Heaven,  to  the  Sun,  to  the 
A  Moon,  to  Earth,  to  Night,  to  the  Day,  and 
to  the  Father  of  all  that  is  and  will  be,  to  Eros." 
Such  an  invocation  was  possible  among  the  ancient 
civilized  nations.  They  recognized  the  importance 
of  sexuality  in  life.  They  discovered  in  it  the 
focus  of  life.  For  that  reason  sexuality  among 
the  ancients  was  an  object  of  pure  reverence  as 
the  fundamental  force  of  life.  The  divine  adora- 
tion of  sex  was  the  practice  of  every  tribe  and 
nation  of  prehistoric  antiquity.  With  the  advance 
of  Christianity,  however,  until  recently,  sexuality 
was  not  looked  upon  with  great  favor,  and  a  sane 
knowledge  of  sex  was  assiduously  withheld  from 
the  people.  The  result  is  that  there  is  scarcely  a 
subject  so  completely  ignored  as  the  sex  function, 
although  so  much  of  the  health  and  happiness  of 
the  race  depends  on  it. 

Yet  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  that  causes 
so  much  suffering  as  a  want  of  knowledge  on 
this  subject.  Through  the  prevailing  ignorance 
the  loathsome  venereal  diseases  have  become  so 
diffused  that,  when  parents  are  giving  their 


10  GENESIS 

daughter  in  marriage,  they  take  one  chance  in 
five,  at  least,  of  contaminating  her  system  and 
that  of  her  offspring  with  tainted  blood.  Social 
conditions  in  our  great  cities  have  indeed  become 
so  menacing  that  diseases  of  this  kind  threaten  to 
bring  about  the  extinction  of  entire  races. 

For  that  reason  public  spirited  men  and  women 
in  most  of  the  western  countries  of  Europe  and 
in  America  have  recognized  that  something  rad- 
ical has  to  be  done  to  call  a  halt  to  the  spread 
and  diffusion  of  these  diseases.  They  have  formed 
societies  for  moral  prophylaxis,  and  in  their  meet- 
ings the  best  ways  and  means  of  checking  the 
spread  of  venereal  diseases  have  been  discussed. 
The  unanimous  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  the 
prevention  of  these  diseases  can  not  be  accom- 
plished by  laws.  We  may  as  well  legislate  against 
the  law  of  gravitation  as  against  the  law  of  sex. 
But  all  who  have  given  thought  to  this  question 
agree  that  reasonable  instruction  of  honest,  earn- 
est men  and  women  will  do  more  to  reform  social 
abuses  than  all  written  laws.  There  is  no  pan- 
acea, says  the  editor  of  New  York  State  Journal 
of  Medicine,  for  these  evils  but  education,  and 
an  education  which  shall  enlighten  the  legislator, 
the  judge,  the  pedagogue  and  the  parent.  Only  _ 
cleanliness  of  mind  and  body,  attained  by  proper 
instruction,  will  prevent  these  diseases.  This  in-^ 
struction,  all  agree,  must  begin  in  childhood. 
Knowledge  of  personal  hygiene  and  of  sexual 


INTRODUCTION  11 

physiology  should  be  imparted  to  all  children  and 
should  be  begun  at  an  early  age.*  Systematic  in- 
struction, as  to  the  best  safeguards  against  the 
dangers,  should  be  given,  so  far  as  the  age  of  the 
child  will  permit,  and  the  great  evils  caused  by 
venereal  diseases  should  be  explained  to  older  boys 
and  girls. 

Education  should  not  be  limited  to  intellectual 
or  mental  training  alone,  but  should  aim  at  the 
whole  manner  of  life,  physical,  psychical  and  so- 
cial. Education  comprehends  all  that  series  of 
instruction  and  discipline  which  is  intended  to 
enlighten  the  understanding,  correct  the  temper 
and  form  the  manners  and  habits  of  youths  and 
fit  them  for  usefulness  in  their  future  stations 
of  life. 

These  sentiments  are  shared  by  all  thinking  men 
and  women.  They  are  all  unanimous  in  the  opin- 
ion that  young  men  and  women  need  the  training 
in  matters  of  sex  in  order  to  acquire  true  relations 
toward  each  other  and  toward  their  offspring. 
All  serious  men  and  women  agree  that  the  masses 
need  leading  and  guiding  and  constant  suggestion. 
August  Conte  says :  Our  hearts  are  so  fickle  that 
society  has  to  take  a  hand  to  curb  inconstancy 
and  caprice  which  would  cause  human  existence 
to  degenerate  in  a  series  of  aimless  and  unworthy 
-experiments. 

When  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  instruct- 
ing the  youth  in  sex  matters  is  answered  in  the 


12  GENESIS 

affirmative,  there  arises  another  question,  how 
shall  the  knowledge  be  imparted?  The  scruple 
that  enlightenment  improperly  imparted,  could 
effect  a  premature  awakening  of  passion  must  be 
well  considered.  There  is  always  the  difficulty 
how  to  avoid  any  damage  to  modesty.  Most 
writers  on  this  subject  give  excellent  suggestions 
as  to  instruct  young  people  in  these  matters.  But 
suggestions  are  of  service  only  to  those  who  have 
some  knowledge  of  natural  sciences,  for  those  who 
have  not  had  the  opportunity  to  acquire  the  same 
suggestions  alone  will  not  do. 

Here  another  problem  arises,  who  shall  impart 
this  knowledge  to  our  youth  ?  Parents  and  teach- 
ers who  ought  to  be  the  natural  instructors,  are 
not  prepared  to  throw  light  on  the  subject.  At 
the  thought  of  their  duty  they  have  a  painful 
feeling  of  helplessness.  For  they  too  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  traditional  sex 
morality.  Even  the  medical  profession,  which  is 
the  only  class  that  is  conversant  with  the  sexual 
question,  by  virtue  of  its  anatomical  and  physio- 
logical knowledge,  and  is  well  aware  of  its  hygi- 
enic, sociological  and  ethical  importance,  is  em- 
barrassed because  of  a  lack  of  special  pedagogic 
experience.  Prof.  Buchwald  says :  "We  physi- 
cians, although  we  are  experts  in  these  matters, 
have  the  same  difficulties  in  regard  to  our  own 
children  as  every  other  father  or  mother."  Frey 
says :  "The  majority  of  our  physicians  is  not  able 


INTRODUCTION  13 

to  furnish  the  enlightenment  that  the  reform  of 
sexual  pedagogy  has  a  right  to  demand,  although 
the  medical  man  knows  the  dangers  arising  from 
the  early  exercise  of  the  organs  of  generation  and 
the  diseases  which  result  in  consequence.  The 
cause  of  this  incapacity  in  medical  men  is  lack  of' 
knowledge  of  sexual  pejlagogy-" 

Who  then  shall  bring  enlightenment  to  our 
youth?  It  certainly  is  not  to  be  dealt  with  by 
those  whose  acquaintance  with  the  subject  is 
chiefly  derived  from  blue  books,  reports  of  so- 
cieties for  the  prevention  of  vice  and  sermons 
who  regard  every  sexual  anomaly  as  an  acquired 
vice,  to  be  treated  with  indignation. 

After  looking  over  the  entire  field  of  natural 
instructors  we  have  to  return  again  to  the  parents 
and  the  school.  They  must  not  allow  the  chil- 
dren to  enter  life  without  knowledge  of  their  own 
bodies  and  without  knowing  those  functions,  the 
exercise  of  which  may  bring  the  greatest  danger 
not  only  to  their  own  health  but  to  their  de- 
scendants. The  office  of  parents  and  teachers  re- 
quires imperiously  not  only  knowledge  of  mat- 
ters sexual,  but  these  natural  teachers  of  our 
youth  must  learn  how  to  instruct  children  in  these 
matters.  Teachers,  says  Stiles,  can  do  great  good 
when  they  are  fully  informed  on  this  subject  by 
a  more  careful  watch  over  the  children  in  their 
rooms,  and  by  co-operating  with  the  parents,  in 
private  instruction,  in  suitable  cases. 


14  GENESIS 

To  facilitate  the  acquisition  of  such  knowledge, 
the  author  has  written  this  small  Manual.  It  is 
not  meant  to  be  followed  as  a  catechism,,  but  is 
intended  to  give  parents  and  instructors  a  scheme 
how  to  speak,  even  with  small  children,  about 
these  matters. 

The  first  four  lessons  are  for  children  from 
infancy  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  The  lessons  are 
distributed  according  to  Moll's  classification  of 
the  child's  age.  Moll  divides  childhood  into  four 
periods;  the  age  from  1-4  years  is  the  period  of 
the  first  fulness;  from  5-7  years  the  period  of  the 
first  extension;  from  8-10  years  is  the  period  of 
the  second  fulness;  and  from  11-15  years  the 
period  of  the  second  extension.  For  certain  years 
in  the  life  of  the  child  show  more  a  growth  in 
length-extension,  others  more  a  development  in 
fulness.  The  fifth  lesson  is  given  for  the  benefit 
of  adolescents  between  15-20  years  of  age. 

In  these  chapters  the  subject  is  approached 
gradually  co-ordinating,  suiting  the  information 
to  the  intelligence  of  the  child  and  the  general 
development  of  his  perceptive  faculties.  The  in- 
struction here  given  is  neither  superficial  nor 
hurried.  The  various  steps  are  taken  with  due 
regard  to  the  mental  and  physical  development  of 
the  child.  The  instruction  must  necessarily  be 
varied  to  suit  this  or  that  particular  case.  Hence, 
in  some  places,  the  lesson  may  be  a  little  too  sci- 
entific for  some  parent,  who  will  naturally  omit 


INTRODUCTION  15 

that  part  of  the  lesson.  Parents  who  are  versed 
in  physical  science  may  follow  even  the  fifth  les- 
son which  is  intended  for  the  use  of  physicians 
and  ministers  only.  Teachers  will  surely  be  able 
to  follow  every  part  of  the  lessons  with  the  great- 
est ease. 

In  deference  to  prevailing  prejudices  on  this 
subject  a  scientific  discussion  of  the  anatomy  and 
physiology  of  the  external  sex  organs  of  the 
human  body  and  of  copulation  have  been  entirely 
omitted,  to  satisfy  even  the  most  scrupulous 
parents,  who  are  in  doubt  whether  they  could 
prevent  their  children  from  leading  an  unclean 
and  immoral  life  by  silence  or  by  judicious  in- 
struction and  proper  knowledge. 

In  any  case,  the  author  has  tried  to  avoid  fine 
phrases  and  to  produce  results,  so  that,  after  a 
careful  perusal  of  these  few  lessons  the  parent, 
the  teacher  or,  at  some  periods  in  the  child's  life, 
perhaps  best  of  all  the  family  physician  and  min- 
ister, will  be  able,  with  a  little  care,  to  give  whole- 
some advice  to  the  children  intrusted  to  his  care. 


FIRST   GENERAL  PART 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Prevailing  Silence  on  Sex  Matters. 

LIFE'S  paradoxes  are  many,  but  none  so 
striking  as  those  relating  to  sex.  Sexual 
passion  is  the  highest  and  most  sacred  one.  It  is 
the  passion  of  creation,  the  most  important  func- 
tion in  the  universe.  Sympathy,  affection,  fidel- 
ity, sacrifice,  indeed,  all  those  noble  traits  included 
under  the  term  of  altruism,  spring  from  the  re- 
productive instinct.  From  fission  to  parturition, 
reproduction  is  self-sacrifice,  says  Hutchinson. 
In  its  just  appreciation  the  civilized  world  con- 
siders matrimony  holy,  the  greater  part  of  Chris- 
tianity has  elevated  the  same  to  a  sacrament. 
Still  every  mention  of  the  sexual  function  has 
been  declared  taboo.  We  are  constantly  fed  on 
stork  tales.  Even  the  professors  at  our  medical 
schools  dare  not  teach  or  explain  the  physiology  of 
sex  to  their  students.  They  speak  of  digestion, 
of  motion,  of  growth,  but  they  halt  at  the  urinary 
secretion  because  of  the  propinquity  of  its  organs 
17 


18  GENESIS 

to  the  organs  of  sex.  Like  the  os  innominatum, 
all  the  organs  of  this  neighborhood  have  been 
made  nameless.  The  traditions.,  sentiments  and 
views  of  a  time  when  sex  life  wras  considered  sin- 
ful, low  and  bestial,  unworthy  of  human  beings, 
are  still  in  vogue,  and  schools  and  universities  are 
dominated  by  this  conventional  morality.  The 
bare  mention  of  the  subject  of  sex  is,  therefore, 
branded  as  obscene.  The  very  discussion  of  this 
question  is  surrounded  by  the  gravest  difficulties, 
hedged  about  by  a  silence  that  is  criminal.  Every- 
thing in  relation  with  propagation  in  man  and 
animal  has  become  a  "noli  me  tangere."  The 
representation  of  the  sex  function  has  reached 
such  a  state  of  affectation  that  it  begs  its  equal. 
Entirely  harmless  words,  such  as  womb,  testicle, 
semen,  or  navel  cord  have  been  declared  unfit  to 
be  mentioned  in  society.  Matters  pertaining  to 
the  generative  organs,  functions  which  were  for- 
merly discussed  with  perfect  familiarity  and  di- 
rectness, with  no  thought  of  impropriety  or  im- 
modesty, as  in  the  Bible  and  other  ancient  classics, 
are  now  excluded  even  from  treatises  on  physiol- 
ogy. Thus  has  prudery  succeeded  to  decree  noth- 
ing so  shameful  as  sex  life,  and  the  function  of 
sex  is  considered  something  low,  sensual  and  self- 
ish. Even  men  professing  to  teach  sexual  matters 
consider,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  sexu*al  in- 
stinct belongs  to  the  lower  attributes. 

Nature's   first   and   sublimest  laws  have   been 


PREVAILING   SILENCE   ON  SEX  MATTERS          19 

ignored  by  uninformed  teachers,  timidly  sup- 
pressed by  mistaught  parents  and  cravenly  hidden 
by  physicians.  Especially  for  the  benefit  of  the 
child  everything  pertaining  to  sex  is  clothed  with 
a  garment  of  shame.  The  child  has  been  taught 
diligently,  by  parents  and  associates,  that  certain 
things  are  immodest  either  to  mention  or  to  no- 
tice, and  it  has  been  made  to  believe  that  prudery 
is  modesty  and  that  constant  consciousness  of  sex 
is  innocence.  Even  in  the  exhortations  to  purity, 
the  impression  is  given  that  the  question  of  sex  is 
unclean,  something  shameful  and  sinful. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Ignorance  of  Parents. 

THE  result  of  the  general  prudery  is  a  general 
prevailing  ignorance  of  parents  in  sex  mat- 
ters. Even  cultured  parents  lack  the  requisite 
knowledge  for  the  education  of  their  children  in 
matters  sexual,,  and  shrink  from  the  difficulty  of 
explaining  them  to  their  offspring.  After  all 
timidity  and  awe  have  been  overcome  with  great 
efforts,  the  parents  are  ignorant  how  to  teach 
their  children  the  science  of  sex.  They  are  in 
doubt  and  uncertainty  how  to  begin  this  task. 
They  themselves  need  enlightenment.  Ignorance 
in  sex  matters  is  handed  down  from  mother  to 
daughter,  generation  after  generation,  with  the 
effect  that  the  mother  cannot  speak  intelligently 
to  her  child,  and  the  parent  not  only  dares  not 
but  knows  not  how  to  enter  upon  this  subject  of 
vital  importance.  Xow,  if  we  agree  that  the  sex 
function  is  to  be  taught  at  all,  the  first  lessons 
must  be  given  by  parents,  who,  by  virtue  of  their 
relationship,  are  most  fitted  for  the  task.  If  the 
parents  are  ignorant  of  what  to  say,  or  how  to 
fulfill  the  task,  then  it  becomes  necessary  that  the 
parents  themselves  be  taught  first,  before  they,  in 
turn,  can  teach  their  children.  If  the  parents 
20 


IGNORANCE    OF    PARENTS  21 

are  ashamed  to  say  anything  to  their  children,  or 
if,  in  their  prudery.,  they  are  not  able,,  under  any 
circumstances.,  to  speak  openly  and  naturally 
about  natural  things.,  they  must  ask  the  minister 
or  the  family  physician  to  do  so.  The  latter.,  by 
virtue  of  his  profession,  may  tell  the  child  what 
it  should  know,,  without  fearing  to  hurt  the  child's 
modesty.  In  many  cases  parents  cannot  be  taught 
how  to  impart  information  because  they  are  of  too 
low  an  order  of  intelligence  to  give  instruction, 
even  if  they  appreciate  its  value.  In  such  cases, 
where  we  can  not  rely  upon  home  instruction,  it 
becomes  incumbent  upon  the  school  to  teach  the 
child  that-  the  law  of  sex  is  the  most  important  fact 
in  life. 

.Many  parents,  moreover,  are  not  able  to  instruct 
their  children  because  they  lack  the  necessary  tact, 
and  often  the  moral  maturity.  There,  again,  it 
becomes  the  duty  of  others  who  have  the  child's 
confidence,  as  the  teacher  or  the  physician,  to  in- 
form the  child.  Bjoernson  says :  "Education  that 
would  accomplish  anything  in  this  respect  presup- 
poses, as  an  unavoidable  necessary  condition,  com- 
plete confidence  between  child  and  parents,  or  at 
least  between  child  and  mother;  or,  to  express  my 
thoughts  more  clearly,  between  the  child  and  him 
who  has  gained  its  greatest  confidence.  If  neither 
mother  nor  father  has  done  so,  which  may  easily 
happen,  then  somebody  else  must  be  found  who  will 
be  able  to  win  the  child's  confidence." 


CHAPTER  III. 
The  Alleged  Evil  of  Education. 

BOTH  school  and  home  are  equally  guilty  of 
neglect  in  respect  to  sex  instruction,  and  the 
home  bears  the  greater  burden  of  blame,  and  in  the 
home  the  mother  who  has  the  child  near  her  most 
of  the  time,  is  the  chief  offender.  It  is  not  always 
a  sense  of  incompetence  that  makes  parents  shirk 
their  duty.  Many  a  parent  does  it  from  the  ata- 
vistic impregnation  of  his  mind  with  the  idea  that 
such  information  is  not  proper.  Parents  look  upon 
the  veil,  covering  all  these  matters,  as  a  benevolent 
arrangement  of  nature,  founded  upon  the  conser- 
vation of  the  sense  of  shame  for  a  later  period  of 
man's  life.  They  raise  the  objection  that  early 
education  would  precipitate  the  evil.  They  are 
scared  away  from  the  discussion  of  this  delicate 
question,  because  they  believe  that  in  talking  open- 
ly to  their  child  they  are  apt  to  put  wrong  ideas 
into  his  head  which  would,  perhaps,  never  have  had 
lodgment  there.  The  little  angel  is  considered  too 
pure  to  have  his  mind  sullied  with  the  mention  of 
such  vicious  subjects. 

This  timidity  on  the  part  of  the  parents  is  quite 
natural.     They  attribute  unconsciously  their  own 

22 


THE  ALLEGED  EVIL  OF  EDUCATION      23 

adult  sentiments  to  the  child,  when  they  emphasize 
the  delicate  nature  of  the  explanation  of  sexual 
matters.  It  is  only  their  own  consciousness  in  re- 
gard to  this  question.  They  shift  their  own  preju- 
dices on  to  the  child. 

But  the  prudery  is  in  our  own  mind,  and  not  at 
all  in  that  of  our  children.  There  is  no  element 
of  pruriency  in  the  mind  of  the  child.  It  never 
thinks  of  blushing  or  laughing  at  natural  phenom- 
ena. Children,  says  Lejeune,  have  the  privilege 
to  meet  with  vice  and  still  not  understand  it,  pro- 
vided their  nature  is  good,  and  they  live  in  an  hon- 
est and  respectable  environment.  A  child's  clear 
mind  knows  no  embarrassment  until  the  clouds  in 
some  older  one  throw  their  shadows  there. 

The  sense  of  shame  is  not  innate  in  the  child. 
It  does  not  know  anything  of  shame.  Even  chil- 
dren, whose  consciousness  is  completely  awakened, 
have  to  be  properly  taught  in  regard  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  sense  of  shame.  When  the  child  comes 
to  his  parents  for  enlightenment  in  matters  sexual 
and  he  receives  a  stern  rebuke  because  his  ques- 
tions are  improper,  immodest  and  shameful,  he 
does  not  understand  it.  Children  do  not  see  why 
they  should  not  lift  their  garments  and  uncover 
their  genitals ;  why  they  should  not  ease  nature  on 
the  streets;  why  they  should  not  play  with  their 
organs,  and  why  they  should  not  speak  of  them  and 
their  functions  in  the  presence  of  others. 

The  sense  of  shame  begins  to  develop  in  the 


24  GENESIS 

child  not  earlier  than  the  third  year,  and  until  the 
sixth  year  it  is  very  slight.  When  the  child  begins 
to  ask  upon  the  arrival  of  a  new-born  baby  in  the 
family,,  or  in  the  family  of  a  neighbor,  an  event  of 
such  importance  in  his  life,,  about  the  origin  of 
man,  the  question  is  caused  by  the  child's  desire  of 
knowledge  about  everything  around  him,  and  not 
from  prurient  curiosity.  We  need  only  to  observe 
children  to  become  aware  that  the  desire  to  know 
is  one  of  their  most  prominent  characteristics. 
When  the  child  craves  knowledge  it  is  merely 
yielding  to  the  instincts  of  nature  seeking  after 
truth.  The  child's  psychological  sex  neutrality 
receives  no  limitation  by  this  question.  We  could, 
therefore,  discuss  with  the  child  matters  of  sex,  ;is 
we  discuss  matters  of  digestion,  with  absolute  free- 
dom from  all  lascivious  feelings.  Instead  of  speak- 
ing with  candor,  when  increasing  power  of  observa- 
tion and  judgment  awakens  in  the  child  the  desire 
to  obtain  information  about  certain  things,  we 
commit  the  great  mistake  of  putting  him  off  with 
false  statements  and  nonsensical  assertions. 

About  the  age  of  six  years,  doubts  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  tales,  hitherto  believed,  begin  to 
arise  in  the  normal  child.  If  a  sense  of  false  mod- 
esty prevents  the  parents  from  giving  any  instruc- 
tion to  their  children  upon  sexual  matters,  secre- 
tiveness  will  only  excite  their  curiosity  and  lead  to 
fanciful  thoughts.  There  lies  for  the  psyche  some- 
thing tormenting  in  secrecy  which  presses  for  some 


THE    ALLEGED    EVIL   OF    EDUCATION  25 

kind  of  explosion.  When  the  object  of  desire  and 
feeling  is  covered  with  secretiveness  by  parents  and 
teachers,  then  curiosity  is  the  more  excited.  For- 
bidding to  speak  about  sexual  matters  causes  rather 
the  mind  to  occupy  itself  with  this  subject  and 
awakens  the  morbid  curiosity  regarding  the  mys- 
tery of  sex.  It  may  be  put  down  as  a  rule  that  the 
less  the  child  speaks  of  it  the  more  he  thinks  of  it. 
Natural  candor  will,  therefore,,  not  direct  the 
child's  mind  to  sexual  matters,,  for  the  child  is  al- 
ready occupied  very  much  with  them,  only  in  a 
prurient  way.  With  our  fig-leaf  policy  we  only 
call  the  child's  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  is 
something  to  be  concealed,  and  this  excites  his 
fancy  and  interest  in  the  other  sex.  But  if  the 
child  becomes  accustomed  to  consider  sexual  mat- 
ters as  something  quite  natural,  they  will  excite  his 
curiosity  to  a  much  lesser  degree  later  on,  because 
they  have  lost  the  spice  of  novelty.  The  sex  prob- 
lem, says  Ruggles,  will  be  robbed  of  that  mystic 
secrecy,  that  odor  of  forbidden  sweets,  which  en- 
genders lascivious  thoughts  and  the  delight  of  ob- 
scene stories.  The  mysterious  charm  in  which  sex- 
uality has  been  shrouded,  the  nimbus  of  the  roman- 
tic and  interesting  with  which  sexual  matters  have 
been  enveloped,  are  conducive  to  the  premature 
establishment  of  sexual  proclivities.  It  is  a  physio- 
logical fact  that  accurate  knowledge  on  these 
points  excites  the  least  those  pupils  who  were  in- 
structed in  these  matters  before  their  sex-awaken- 


2G  GENESIS 

ing.  For  habit  always  diminishes  the  erotic  effect 
of  certain  perceptions  of  the  senses,  and  inversely, 
eroticism  or  sexual  desire  is  especially  excited  by 
unaccustomed  perceptions  or  images  relating  to  the 
other  sex.  Hence  the  mind  of  the  child,  fortified 
by  sound  instruction  from  his  parents,  is  better 
guarded  against  the  poison  of  evil.  Knowledge 
and  candor  never  lead  to  ruin,  but  secretiveness 
which  causes  awakening  of  curiosity  and  desire. 
Chastity  does  not  thrive  beneath  fig-leaves,  but 
prudery  and  lasciviousness  do,  for  prudery  covers, 
and  the  cover  causes  lasciviousness.  The  fig-leaf 
commences,  says  Hutchinson,  when  innocence 
ceases.  Before  man's  fall  in  Eden  the  fig-leaf  was 
unknown.  Nudity  never  causes  sexual  excitement 
in  the  child  or  has  any  moral  influence  upon  him. 
The  undercurrent  of  erotic  exaltation  is  entirely 
absent  in  the  child ;  hence  the  earlier  nudity  in  art 
and  nature  is  shown  to  him  as  something  self- 
understood,  the  less  he  will  think  about  it,  and  the 
later  the  sexual  feelings  will  be  awakened.  If  the 
child  is  accustomed,  says  Forel,  to  the  sight  of 
nudity,  in  adults  of  his  own  sex,  he  will  see  noth- 
ing peculiar  in  his  own  sexual  organs  and  pubic 
hairs  when  they  develop,  while  children  brought  up 
with  strict  prudery  and  in  complete  ignorance  of 
sex  matters  often  become  greatly  excited  when  their 
pubic  hairs  appear.  They  feel  ashamed  and  at  the 
same  time  erotic.  When  they  are  not  prepared, 
boys  become  greatly  excited  at  the  first  seminal 


THE  ALLEGED  EVIL  OF  EDUCATION      27 

emission,,  and  girls  still  more  at  the  first  appear- 
ance of  menstruation.  This  great  shock  of  the 
growing  child  is  caused  by  the  parents  having 
erected  a  barrier  of  shame  around  sex.  Yet  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  have  a  feeling  of 
pride  instead  of  shame.  To  be  proud  of  one's  body, 
and  to  consider  it  sacred,  would  protect  us  far  more 
than  shame. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
Impossibility  of  Maintaining  Ignorance. 

THE  aim  of  most  parents  is  to  launch  their 
children  into  the  world  in  a  state  of  edenic 
innocence.,  and  there  is  nothing  more  fatuous  than 
their  illusion  that  they  succeed  herein.  If  instruc- 
tion is  not  given  by  those  authorized  to  give  it,  it 
will  be  given  by  those  not  qualified  to  instruct,  and 
with  pernicious  results.  If  we  do  not  teach  our 
children,,  they  will  learn  much  sooner  than  we 
think.  Delay  is  fraught  with  much  danger.  We 
must  not  procrastinate  in  this  matter.  Haste  is 
necessary,  for  the  germs  of  onanistic  impulses,  ho- 
mosexual desires  and  sadistic,  masochistic  and  fe- 
tichistic  inclinations  are  often  inocculated  at  a 
very  tender  age.  If  the  parents  do  not  teach  their 
children,  others  will.  The  schools  of  instruction 
are  numerous;  they  are  found  in  the  servants' 
quarters,  the  streets,  obscene  literature,  etc.  There 
is  no  question  that  children,  even  of  tender  age. 
know  a  great  many  things  in  this  respect.  They 
talk  about  them,  although  they  are  not  acquainted 
with  the  technique  and  the  minutiae.  Only  too 
frequently  lads  in  their  early  teens  are  guilty  of 
conversations,  replete  with  unpublishable  anoc- 
28 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


IMPOSSIBLE   TO   MAINTAIN  IGNORANCE  29 

dotes.  The  average  child  in  the  city,  between  the 
ages  of  ten  to  fifteen,  knows  things  that  would 
make  his  parents'  hair  stand  on  end,  if  they  sup- 
posed for  one  moment  that  their  child  is  conver- 
sant with  such  matters.  The  parents  err  when 
they  think  that  children  between  ten  and  twelve 
years  of  age  are  totally  ignorant  of  sexual  matters, 
even  if  they  are  watched  ever  so  much.  The  in- 
telligent child  learns  of  these  things  by  observa- 
tion. Kemsies  says :  Ignorant  children  in  these 
matters  are  the  great  exception. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  possible,  even  were  it  de- 
sirable, to  preserve  a  state  of  infantile  ignorance, 
which  parents  too  often  confound  with  innocence. 
Hence  the  question  is  not  whether  it  is  better  for 
the  child  to  know  or  not  to  know,  whether  the 
child's  mind  shall  or  shall  not  be  kept  blank  with 
rc.uard  to  this  side  of  his  nature,  this  is  something 
that  is  not  possible.  The  question  is  whether  it  is 
better  to  know  things  right  or  to  know  them  wrong; 
the  question  is  what  kind  of  thinking  shall  the; 
child  do  about  it,  correct  or  erroneous,  what  direcJ 
tion  shall  be  given  to  his  or  her  impulses.  Shall 
the  thinking  be  guided  by  parent  and  teacher,  or 
shall  the  child  wander  haphazard  until  shaped  by 
degenerate  and  shameless  associates  ?  There  is  no 
escape  from  the  alternative.  Eousseau  says:  It  is 
of  great  importance  to  leave  nothing  to  chance,  and, 
if  we  are  not  sure  to  be  able  to  keep  our  child  in 
ignorance  about  the  difference  of  sex  until  the  six- 


30  GENESIS 

teenth  year  of  age,  then  we  have  to  see  that  he 
knows  it  before  his  tenth  year. 

The  child  will  naturally  come  to  his  parents  for 
enlightenment,  for  the  budding  nature  of  youth 
stimulates  an  abnormal  curiosity.  If  the  desire 
for  information  is  met  with  sympathy  instead  of 
censure,  frankness  instead  of  evasion,  truth  instead 
of  falsehood,  then  the  child  will  receive  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  human 
body,  gathered  from  biologic  and  physiologic  in- 
vestigations. He  will  learn  of  the  sexual  impulse 
and  its  function  as  preserving  the  race,  and  he  will 
comprehend  the  soul  of  man  and  its  relation  to 
the  sexual  sphere  with  its  natural  phenomena.  But 
if  the  parents  do  not  supply  the  required  amount 
of  information  concerning  the  functions  of  the  sex 
organs,  and  the  child  notices  that  something  is 
concealed  from  him,  his  phantasy  is  put  to  think- 
ing, combining  and  picturing,  and  he  will  not  give 
rest  until  the  darkness  has  risen.  Knowledge  will 
then  be  obtained  through  the  medium  of  some  un- 
hallowed source,  thereby  generating  a  depraved  and 
perverted  taste  for  forbidden  fruit.  The  choice  be- 
tween the  alternative  of  poisoning  the  child's  soul, 
and  of  protecting  it,  through  enlightenment;  be- 
tween sound  knowledge  and  misleading  error,  even 
if  it  may  rob  the  child  of  some  cherished  illusion, 
should  not  be  difficult.  Even  those  who  believe  in 
the  ideal  of  illusions  admit  that  they  are  here  im-( 
possible.  It  would  be  better,  says  Rosenthal,  to 


IMPOSSIBLE   TO   MAINTAIN   IGNORANCE  31 

preserve  our  youth  in  purity  and  innocence;  for 
"error  is  life  and  knowledge  is  death,"  but  the 
youth  cannot  be  kept  in  ignorance  for  any  length  of 
time,  and  through  deep  secrecy  the  character  of 
obscenity  is  given  to  the  sex  impulse.  Secrecy  pro- 
motes lustfulness  and  sensuality.  Knowledge, 
therefore,  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  to  the 
parents  the  children  ought  to  look,  if  they  are  to 
learn  matters  of  sex  without  shock  to  their  sensi- 
tive and  growing  mind. 

Instead  of  the  proper  instruction  our  children 
have  been  left  to  gather  their  knowledge  of  the 
functions  of  life  from  those  who  have  learned  them 
in  illicit  ways.  Our  youth  has  to  draw  from  se- 
cret contaminated  sources  when  it  seeks  enlighten- 
ment. Instead  of  information,  giving  the  right 
idea  about  the  wonderful  contrivance  of  nature  for 
the  propagation  of  the ,  species,  knowledge  is  ob- 
tained from  ignorant  or  vicious  sources.  The  child 
learns  fragments  of  truth  mixed  with  error  and 
tainted  with  impurity. 

Abundant  temptations  in  this  respect  lurk  in  all 
classes  of  society.  Nurse  girls  and  servants  bring 
back  to  the  respectable  home  the  evil  associations 
of  their  own  lives.  When  the  life  history  of  per- 
verse patients  is  studied,  it  is  discovered  that  the 
starting  point  of  the  disease  was  some  incident  of 
early  youth  in  the  nursery  or  kitchen. 

Next  to  domestic  servants  the  instruction  of  our 
children  on  the  sexual  question  is  left  to  depraved 


32  GENESIS 

companions.  In  our  public  schools  are  often  found 
groups  of  young  perverts  who  succeed,  by  cunning, 
in  seducing  their  friends.  The  free  masonry  ex- 
isting among  boys,  and  in  a  greater  degree  among 
girls,  is  calculated  to  render  the  depraved  ideas 
possessed  by  a  few  common  property.  The  Ladies 
Home  Journal  says :  For  absolute  filth  of  conver- 
sation nothing  could  quite  equal  the  talk  of  boys 
and  girls  during  recess  in  our  schools.  What  is 
still  worse  is  that  the  child  is  generally  instructed, 
at  the  same  time,  in  masturbation,  prostitution  and 
sometimes  even  sexual  perversity.  Every  father 
and  mother,  says  Judge  Lindsey  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  of  Denver,  Colo.,  may  take  it  as  an  absolute 
fact  that  nine-tenths  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the 
schools  in  the  city  and  country  are  extremely  curi- 
ous regarding  matters  of  sex;  and  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  stating  that  boys  discuss  it  in  a  most  im- 
proper and  a  most  unfortunate  way.  I  have  been 
amazed  to  find  this  same  condition  exist  among 
girls  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  I  ever  dreamed. 
I  have  learned  this  in  the  childrens'  court,  after 
repeated  experiences,  talking  to  little  girls  and  their 
mothers,  in  the  privacy  of  my  chambers,  regarding 
their  troubles,  brought  to  my  attention  by  parents, 
officers  and  principals  of  schools. 

Apart  from  the  lessons  received  from  uncultured 
and  often  immoral  companions,  or  grownup  serv- 
ants, there  is  danger  threatening  the  innocent  child 
from  libertines.  The  innocence  of  a  child  pos- 


IMPOSSIBLE   TO   MAINTAIN   IGNORANCE  33 

sesses  a  peculiar  attraction  for  libertines  of  both 
sexes,  who  find  a  refined  erotic  pleasure  and  unique 
relish  in  the  seduction  of  the  innocent,  in  the  role 
of  initiator  in  sex  matters.  Fuller  often  encoun- 
tered young  men  of  the  average  age  of  25  nervously 
and  mentally  wrecked,  whose  clinical  history  reads, 
as  a  rule,  as  follows:  At  the  early  age,  ranging 
from  11-14  years,  the  boy  began  to  practice  in- 
tercourse, a  mature  woman  having  been  the 
offender  and  instigator  of  the  practice.  Indecent 
assaults  upon  children,  says  Morrow,  occur  much 
more  frequently  than  is  generally  supposed,  al- 
though but  few  of  these  cases  are  brought  to  pub- 
lic notice,,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  proving  the 
charge.  In  spite  of  this  difficulty,  4,548  verdicts 
of  guilty  for  the  seduction  of  minors  were  found 
in  Germany  in  one  year — 1908.  A  common  form 
of  indecent  assault  upon  children  is  where  an  adult 
male  or  female  permits  or  compels  a  child  of  either 
sex  to  perform  an  act  of  masturbation  upon  him 
or  her. 

In  some  families  the  child  picks  up  his  sexual 
knowledge,  more  or  less  distorted  and  inaccurate, 
within  his  own  home.  The  child  hears  his  elders 
bragging  of  conquests  and  admirers.  Fathers  and 
even  mothers  frequently  make  equivocal  jokes  with 
their  children,  instead  of  seriously  discussing  the 
sex  question.  Parents  ought  to  be  careful  not  to 
use  even  veiled  language  in  the  presence  of  their 
children.  Rousseau  says:  Children  have  a  par- 


34  GENESIS 

ticular  sagacity  to  discover,  under  the  apery  of  de- 
cency, the  bad  manners  which  it  covers.  The  puri- 
fied language  used  in  their  presence,  the  lessons  in 
good  behavior  given  to  them  and  the  veil  of  mystery 
affected  in  their  presence  are  so  many  incitements 
to  curiosity. 

Another  source  whence  venomous  ideas  are  gath- 
ered are  vile  literature,  the  erotic  play,  obscene  pic- 
tures, vulgar  stories,  pornographic  books  and,  last 
but  not  least,  the  sensational  newspaper  which 
chronicles  all  the  social  intrigues.  Such  literature 
is  spread  broadcast  and  reaches  our  homes  daily. 
Only  serious  scientific  books  on  the  sex  question 
are  ostracized,  and  their  circulation  among  the  gen- 
eral public  is  restrained,  although  no  young  man 
was  ever  led  into  licentiousness  by  reading  a  seri- 
ous book  on  the  physiology  of  sex  or  on  the  dan- 
gers of  sex  abuse. 

Thus  knowledge  comes  to  our  children  filtered 
through  the  gossip  and  actions  of  servants, 
through  the  instruction  of  depraved  comrades, 
through  the  veiled  word  and  the  sly  nudge  of 
elders,  and  through  obscene  literature,  and  the 
jchild  finds  a  sort  of  guilty  joy  in  his  new  discov- 
eries. For  secret  knowledge  possesses  fascination. 
Necessarily  this  knowledge  is  of  a  hideously  dis- 
torted character,  and,  through  its  clandestine  or- 
igin is  invested  with  vulgarity  and  untruth.  It 
breeds  false  modesty,  the  pharisaical  cloak  of  our 
modern  civilization,  degrading  to  lewdness  the 


IMPOSSIBLE   TO   MAINTAIN   IGNORANCE  35 

sacred  functions  of  man  and  womanhood.  It  is, 
therefore,  cruelly  and  culpably  wrong  to  allow 
children  to  grope  about  picking  up  half  truths 
and  distorted  facts,  and  gathering  venomous  ideas 
from  corrupt  playmates,  vile  literature,  obscene 
pictures,  vulgar  novels  and  unfortunate  personal 
experiences. 

In  this  way  our  youth  suffers  damage  in  soul, 
and  body,  because  our  educators  leave  the  discus- , 
sion  of  sexual  matters  to  shameless  and  lewd  \ 
counselors  of  our  children,  instead  of  substituting, 
a  healthy  education  and  discussing  sexual  matters/ 
openly  and  candidly.  The  budding  sexual  pas- 
sion, kindled  by  imagination  which  ought  to  be 
made  less  crude,  is  thus  left  to  enlightenment  from 
turbid  sources.  The  reason  for  all  this  is  the  awe 
of  the  parents  to  answer  all  questions  appertain- 
ing to  sex.  Like  the  ostrich  that  hides  its  head 
in  the  sand  and  thinks  because  it  can  not  see  any 
one  no  one  can  see  it,  educators  think  that  if  they 
withhold  the  needed  instruction  and  rigidly  ex- 
clude from  discussion  any  topic  appertaining  to 
sex,  the  minds  of  the  young  will  remain  void  of 
all  knowledge  on  this  subject. 


CHAPTER  V. 
The  Necessity  of  Information. 

THE  physiology  of  sex  is  the  largest  and  most 
complex,,  the  most  important  and  interest- 
ing of  all  human  themes,  says  Hall.  The  sexual 
desires  and  instincts,,  the  intensity  of  the  same,  its 
normal  as  well  as  abnormal  directions,  are  of  im- 
portance for  the  development  of  man's  character. 
Candor  and  truth  ought,  therefore,  to  surround 
sex  matters.  Instead  of  this  there  is  the  tradi- 
tional ignorance,  false  shame  and  prudery.  \\\>. 
have  hedged  these  matters  around  with  a  Chinese 
wall  of  concealment  and  falsehood.  The  result 
of  this  air  of  shame,  thrown  around  the  great  sex 
mystery,  is  the  sharpening  and  stimulating  of  the 
child's  curiosity.  Curiosity  is  developed  because 
of  the  impression  of  mystery  and  shame  that 
adults  throw  around  all  matters  of  sex,  of  new 
life  and  of  marriage.  The  child  wishes  to  know 
whence  he  came  into  the  world,  and  how  human 
beings  are  propagated.  The  child's  mind  is  avid 
of  enlightenment  and  harbors  a  germ  of  curiosity 
which  seeks  the  light  of  knowledge.  This  curi- 
osity is  not  morbid;  it  is  natural.  The  child's 
questions,  therefore,  ought  to  be  answered  truth- 
36 


THE    NECESSITY    OF    INFORMATION  37 

fully  as  soon  as  he  asks  them,  instead  of  meeting 
them  with  lies  and  hushes.  This  method  of  secrecy 
has  the  certain  effect  of  stimulating  the  imagina- 
tion to  the  highest  pitch.  By  conjectures  and 
surmises  the  child's  mind  is  transformed  into  a 
seething  swirl  of  morbid  emotions.  When  the 
child,  later  on,  picks  up  a  certain  amount  of  in- 
formation, which,  as  a  rule,  is  entirely  erroneous 
and  provocative  of  much  harm  he  keeps  the  same 
concealed  from  his  elders.  This  information  de- 
stroys the  child's  confidence  and  trust  in  his  par- 
ents. Through  the  clouding  of  the  pure  sense 
for  things  natural  the  child  is  shocked  at  the 
thought  that  his  parents  have  been  parties  to  some 
wrong  when  it  was  conceived.  After  this  expe- 
rience the  child  confides  his  troubles  to  strangers, 
instead  of  consulting  his  parents.  Indeed,  his 
parents  do  not  merit  his  confidence.  During  all 
the  early  years  of  his  life  they  have,  out  of  a  false 
sense  of  prudence,  reared  him  in  ignorance. 

This  state  of  affairs  is  certainly  not  favorable 
for  healthy  development.  It  is,  therefore,  a  car- 
dinal sin  against  youth  to  deny  it  the  knowledge 
that  would  safeguard  it  against  ignorant  exposures 
to  all  the  dangers  of  sex  life.  Bjornson  says :  If 
I  learn  in  my  early  youth  the  elements  my  body 
consists  of  and  the  mechanism  of  the  same,  if  I 
know  the  harm  and  good  I  could  do,  not  only  to 
myself,  but  also  to  those  to  whom  I  shall  give  life, 
some  future  day,  and  who  will  depend  on  me,  this 


38  GENESIS 

very  knowledge  is  not  only  faithfully  watching 
over  me  but,  as  a  rule,  also  fortifies  and  strength- 
ens my  will  to  follow  my  better  judgment.  Noth- 
ing awakens  our  responsibility  in  a  higher  degree 
than  the  insight  into  the  nature  of  things.  But 
this  knowledge  should  not  come  too  late.  We 
must,  therefore,  remove  the  false  modesty  which 
now  surrounds  this  subject.  We  must  endeavor  to 
tell  the  truth  in  a  manner  suitable  to  the  child's 
age.  We  must  not  suddenly  tell  the  truth  with 
brutal  candor  and  fanaticism,  the  truth  as  yet  in- 
comprehensible to  the  child's  intelligence,  but  we 
must  so  instruct  him  that  in  the  course  of  a  de- 
cade the  child  will  learn  by  degrees  to  comprehend 
and  understand  the  truth.  We  must  follow  Les- 
sing's  teachings:  The  child  must  receive  the 
truth,  nothing  but  the  truth,  but  not  the  entire 
truth,  not  the  whole  truth  at  one  and  same  age 
of  the  child,  when  he  is  not  yet  fit  to  receive  the 
whole  truth,  but  always  the  truth  when  he  be- 
gins to  look  for  the  truth.  As  soon  as  the  child 
begins  to  ask  questions,  and  doubt  commences,  it 
is  the  highest  time  to  enlighten  him  about  the 
origin  of  life  on  earth  and  thus  awaken  in  him 
ethical  conceptions. 

The  present  conditions  of  life  demand  that  we 
should  not  delay  this  teaching  and  wait  to  see  how 
the  youth  of  the  land  undermines  systematically 
its  intellectual  and  moral  potencies  and  sins  against 
its  own  body.  Evil  influences  are  at  work,  a  grad- 


THE    NECESSITY    OF    INFORMATION  39 

ual  process  of  moral  deterioration  in  the  natural 
growth  of  sex  corrupts  the  very  young.  This  can 
only  be  prevented  by  instructing  the  children  be- 
times in  sexual  questions,  a  duty  necessary  in  the 
name  of  hygiene  and  morality.  The  concealment 
of  everything  in  relation  with  the  origin  of  man 
is  the  cause  of  our  present  social  conditions.  One- 
half  of  the  ills  of  humanity  is  due  to  incomplete 
knowledge  or  ignorance.  If  we  wish  to  purify 
sex  life  and  prevent  the  growth  of  immorality  and 
of  a  foul  atmosphere  of  thought,  our  explanation 
must  be  clear  and  plain  without  any  trace  of  re- 
luctance, wavering,  or  refined  ambiguity.  Early 
training  through  innocence  into  virtue  is  an  ab- 
solute necessity.  Only  one  thing  can  prevent  ex- 
cesses, namely  candor,  unreserved  candor,  at  home 
and  in  school. 

The  first  menstrual  occurrences  in  girls  and  the 
first  nocturnal  pollutions  in  boys  may  give  rise  to 
ideas  which,  without  proper  explanations,  may 
take  a  wrong  and  often  even  a  diseased  direction, 
while  education  wherever  hereditary  disposition 
presents  a  normal  average — schools  can  not  cure  a 
pathological  sexual  hereditary  mneme,  whether 
it  consists  in  perversion,  precocity  or  some  other 
vice — can  do  much  to  avoid  pathological  errors 
and  habits  by  guiding  the  sexual  appetite  in  a 
healthy  direction  and  by  avoiding  excesses.  But 
it  is  not  cold  moral  preaching  that  will  help  us. 
Sentiments  of  high  toned  morality  do  not  cure 


40  GENESIS 

the  social  evil.  No  one  has  ever  been  saved  from 
moral  perdition  by  bathing  suit  prescriptions.  We 
need  warm  altruistic  feeling  which  alone  can  act 
as  a  moral  educator  of  children.  There  is  an  in- 
creased desire  for  truth,  founded  upon  progress  in 
knowledge.  Of  primary  importance,  says  Spencer, 
is  that  knowledge  which  ministers  directly  or  indi- 
rectly to  the  maintenance  of  life,  and  next  in  im- 
portance that  knowledge  relating  to  self-preserva- 
tion or  parentage,  which  prepares  for  the  creation 
and  rearing  of  offspring. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Evil  of  Ignorance. 

NOWHERE  are  the  sins  of  omission  in  edu- 
cation more  relentlessly  avenged  than  in 
sex  life.  What  is  the  source  of  life  and  ought  to 
be  the  source  of  pure  joy  and  happiness  for  man 
and  woman  has  become  a  turbid  stream  of  pois- 
ened  feelings,  through  our  system  of  secretiveness. 
Our  prudery  and  vague  moral  preaching  are  of 
no  effect,  especially  when  we  have  to  contend  with 
precocious  sexual  appetite. 

Masturbation  is  often  started  very  early  in  life, 
even  before  the  first  year  has  passed.  This  early 
beginning,  apparently  spontaneous,  is  often  im- 
moderately practiced  on  account  of  the  limitless 
opportunities  afforded. 

Onanism  is  usually  provoked  by  irritation  at  the 
peripheric  region.  The  boy  who  has  the  impulse 
to  touch  and  pull  everything  will  surely  play  with 
his  little  organ.  Sometimes  there  is  a  phimosis 
or  an  inflammation  of  the  prepuce;  in  girls  there 
is  uncleanliness  in  the  vulva,  or  worms.  All  these 
anomalies  cause  itching,  which  drives  the  child 
to  touching  and  rubbing  these  parts.  These  man- 
ipulations cause  an  agreeable  tickling  sensation 
41 


42  GENESIS 

and  awaken  a  feeling  of  lust.  This  feeling  op- 
erates in  the  memory  and  excites  to  a  state  of 
activity  before  sexual  consciousness  has  had  time  to 
be  awakened. 

Sometimes  servants  and  nurse-girls,  either  to 
quiet  the  child  or  out  of  lust  and  ignorance,  tickle 
the  child's  genital  organs, or  gently  slap  the  gluteal 
region  and  thus  awaken  a  lustful  feeling,  which 
later  on  drives  the  child  to  renew  the  manipula- 
tion without  external  cause.  In  this  way  mastur- 
bation is  found  in  the  best  and  purest  homes,  and 
no  one  should  take  it  for  granted  that  his  child  is 
too  nice  and  good  to  be  addicted  to  such  practices. 

Now,  masturbation  leads  to  excesses,  because  it 
can  be  exercised  at  any  time,  in  every  place,  and 
without  any  external  help.  If  excessive  masturba- 
tion is  continued  for  a  considerable  length  of 
time,  children  become  pale  and  anaemic,  have 
dark  rings  under  their  eyes,  are  easily  fatigued 
and  suffer  from  headaches.  Their  sleep  is  broken, 
they  are  quiet,  reticent,  absentminded,  easily  em- 
barrassed and  not  companionable  to  other  children. 
In  older  children  masturbation  causes  depression, 
vertigo,  palpitation  of  the  heart,  a  blinding  feeling 
in  the  eyes,  photophobia,  light-points  and  func- 
tional sex  disturbances,  as  day-pollutions  and 
spermatorrhoea.  Another  fatal  result  of  mastur- 
bation is  that  many  a  boy,  enmeshed  in  the  toils 
of  this  solitary  habit,  seeks  escape  in  licentious 
intercourse. 


THE    EVIL   OF  IGNORANCE  43 

Most  boys  are  driven  to  an  early  exercise  of  the 
sex  functions  through  mere  curiosity.  The  instinct 
of  imitation  also  plays  an  important  role.  To 
appear  manly  also  leads  a  young  boy  to  masturba- 
tion. The  fear  of  not  doing  as  the  others,  and 
especially  the  terror  of  ridicule  constitute  a  pow- 
erful incentive  which  leads  to  abuse  and  extrava- 
gance. Through  teasing  and  mockery  a  youth  is 
the  more  easily  seduced  the  less  he  is  put  on  guard 
by  parents  and  friends.  In  the  same  way  is  ignor- 
ance of  sexual  questions  frequently  the  cause  of 
innocent  girls  being  led  to  ruin.  Scarcely  any 
one  realizes  the  appalling  number  of  school  girls 
who  are  ruined  during  their  school  days.  Instead 
of  explaining  to  her  seriously  and  affectionately 
the  nature  of  sexual  connection,,  its  effects  and 
dangers,  the  girl  is  exposed  to  the  worst  tempta- 
tions. The  girl  needs  to  know  that  impregnation 
and  conception  often  follow  the  sexual  act.  In- 
stead of  this  necessary  knowledge  we  find  in  ma- 
ternity hospitals  many  a  girl  who  has  submitted 
to  the  act  without  the  slightest  idea  of  the  prob- 
able results. 

It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  take  measures  in 
time  and  not  wait  until  our  boys  are  seduced  by 
evil  companions  or  erotic  women,  and  our  girls 
by  evil  persons  of  either  sex.  Every  girl  ought 
to  know  the  consequences  of  indiscretion,  and 
every  boy  the  dignity  of  virility  and  his  duty  to- 
ward every  woman.  He  should  be  taught  the 


44  GENESIS 

health  fulness  of  continence  and  the  advisability 
of  sexual  control. 

Ignorance  is  not  an  ideal  any  way.  Ignorance, 
says  Mayreder,  is  only  a  cheap  substitute  for  in- 
nocence and  is  able  to  feign  the  semblance  of 
innocence  to  the  superficial  observer.  Besides,  in- 
nocent natures  fall  more  often  a  victim  to  seduc- 
tion. The  boy  ought  to  know  the  dangers  of  an 
illicit  sexual  life.  With  the  appearance  of  syphilis, 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  every  devia- 
tion from  the  monogamic  relation  is  a  danger  to 
health. 

Worse  than  syphilis  is  gonorrhoea.  It  has  the 
most  lamentable  results  among  the  female  popu- 
lation. Gonorrhoea,  says  Morrow,  overshadows 
syphilis  in  importance  as  a  social  peril,  because  of 
the  tendency  of  the  gonococcus  to  invade  the 
uterus  and  adnexal  organs  with  results  often  dan- 
gerous to  life  and  destructive  to  the  reproductive 
capacity  of  the  woman,  and  because  of  its  con- 
servation of  virulence  after  apparent  cure. 

A  man  with  an  uncured  gonorrhoea  or  with  a 
secondary  syphilis  in  full  activity  may  marry  and 
his  wife  escape  contamination,  but  this  is  the  ex- 
ception. As  a  rule,  on  the  wedding  night,  she 
will  receive  unsuspectingly  the  poison  of  disease 
which  may  seriously  affect  her  health,  kill  her 
children  or  extinguish  her  capacity  of  conception. 
Such  a  woman's  life  is  ruined,  even  if  she  escapes 
serious  disease  to  her  own  bodv,  for  the  instinct 


THE   EVIL   OF  IGNORANCE  45 

of  maternity  is  implanted,  by  nature,  in  every  nor- 
mally constituted  woman. 

Now,  when  we  consider  the  fact  that  about 
twenty  per  cent,  of  all  venereal  infections  occur 
before  the  nineteenth  year,  i.  e.,  in  mere  children, 
the  fatal  results  of  ignorance  are  easily  seen.  In- 
deed the  universality  of  masculine  unchastity  is 
only  founded  upon  ignorance,  and  the  false  and 
erroneous  ideas  of  the  nature  of  these  diseases  and 
the  dangers  of  promiscuity.  It  is  scarcely  believ- 
able, says  Hegar,  how  nowadays,  when  the  dan- 
gers of  promiscuity  is  so  well  established,  any  one 
could  expose  himself  to  these  risks.  There  is 
only  one  explanation  that  the  people  are  ignorant 
on  this  point,  and  that  their  conceptions  about 
the  evils  of  promiscuity  are  somewhat  hazy. 
Otherwise  only  culpable  stupidity  or  stupid  fri- 
volity could  neglect  these  scruples.  A  French 
nobleman  said  to  his  son,  who  was  going  to  leave 
his  home  for  the  big  city:  "Si  vous  ne  craignez 
Dieu,  craignez  la  verole."  "If  you  are  not  afraid 
of  God,  fear  at  least  syphilis." 

The  irony  of  fate  is  still  greater  in  so  far  as 
women  themselves  regard  men's  indulgences  as 
an  harmless  "sowing  of  wild  oats,"  provided  the 
man  is  single.  They  forget  that  no  one  plays 
with  impunity  with  fire  and  that  these  men's 
victims  will,  later  on,  be  young  and  virtuous 
wives  in  wedlock.  It  is  then  too  late  for  them  to 
amend  their  mistakes  except  by  separation.  The 


46  GENESIS 

fact  that  two-thirds  of  divorces  in  this  country 
are  sought  by  women,  says  Morrow,  shows  that 
the  number  of  separations  and  divorces — although 
other  reasons  are  given — on  account  of  marital 
infection  from  venereal  diseases  is  much  larger 
than  is  commonly  supposed. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Degradation  of  Sentiment. 

FOR  those  young  men  who  accidentally  escape 
infection,  yet  another  danger  lurks,  degra- 
dation of  sentiment  by  the  long  association  with 
prostitutes.  This  degradation  is  seldom  entirely 
effaced  and  generally  leaves  indelible  traces  in 
the  brain.  In  wedlock  the  lack  of  change  keeps 
away  all  unsound  excitations,  while  the  man  who 
has  long  been  accustomed  to  live  with  prostitutes 
is  always  in  eager  quest  of  fresh  stimulants.  The 
animal  nature  gains  ever  increasing  dominion  of 
the  moral  life  of  the  individual.  When  the  limit 
of  dissipation  is  reached,  there  comes  disappoint- 
ment, disgust,  restlessness,  dreariness  and  bit- 
terness. The  individual  becomes  selfish  and 
cruel  and  becomes  unfit  to  establish  a  family. 

To  be  sure  the  virtuous  girl  has  a  certain 
fascination  to  the  most  dissipated  youth,  but 
it  is  only  for  a  passing  moment.  The  intense 
craving  awakened  in  the  youth  for  something  far 
more  exciting  than  she  can  offer  leads  him  ever 
farther  from  her  side  where  this  morbid  fancy 
can  be  satisfied.  For  the  modest  grace  of  pure 
womanhood  can  not  for  a  moment  compare  with 
47 


48  GENESIS 

the  force  of  attraction  which  the  excitement  of 
debauch  and  sensual  indulgence  exert  upon  a 
reckless  pleasure-seeker  who  is  accustomed  to 
such  intoxication.  In  this  way  all  young  and 
pure  women,  even  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes 
of  society,  are  brought  in  direct  competition  with 
vice. 

To  this  competition  may  directly  be  traced  the 
faults  now  so  often  charged  against  young 
women,  their  love  for  dress,  luxury  and  pleasure, 
their  neglect  of  economy,  dislike  of  steady  home 
duties,  etc.  For  to  keep  pace  with  the  prostitute 
the  pure  woman  is  obliged  to  do  as  she  does  and 
be  extravagant  as  she  is.  This  extravagance  in 
all  classes  of  society,  on  the  other  hand,  becomes 
the  strongest  provocative  to  vice,  amoung  young 
girls,  and  makes  prostitutes  out  of  the  servant, 
seamstress  and  pretty  shop  girl.  In  this  manner 
a  vicious  circle  is  established. 

All  these  evils  are  directly  the  result  of  ignor- 
ance, which  sanctions  a  custom  insulting  the 
family,  degrading  the  natural  nobility  of  the 
human  sex  function,  sneering  at  it,  and  treating 
the  great  principle  of  life  with  flippancy.  Ignor- 
ance of  sex,  therefore,  is  a  great  crime  against 
societv. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Moral  Confusion. 

THE  unnatural  education  in  sex  matters  is 
responsible  for  the  fact  that  a  complete 
moral  confusion  meets  the  child  at  the  outset  of 
life.  There  is  no  fixed  standard  of  right  or 
wrong,  regarding  sex,  and  no  clear  ideal  is  held 
before  him.  Eeligious  teaching  and  practical  life 
point  to  different  directions.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  fictitious  side  of  life  and  real  life  is 
enormous.  Church  and  school  promulgate  the 
view  that  the  sexual  impulse  is  the  emanation  of 
our  carnal  nature,  and,  therefore,  depraving, 
sexual  indulgence  being  allowed  only  so  far  as  it 
is  required  for  the  preservation  of  the  species. 
The  ineffaceable  impression  is  given  that  the  sys- 
tem of  generation  is  a  system  of  shame.  This 
impression,  deepened  by  what  the  children  hear 
from  secret  sources,  is  apt  to  dominate  their 
mental  attitude  through  life. 

But  though  this  reprehensible  sex-sensitiveness 
may  be  lauded  in  the  verbiage  of  purity,  the  in- 
stinct of  sex  exists  as  the  indispensable  condition 
of  life,  and  the  foundation  of  society.  It  is  the 
strongest  force  in  human  nature  and  can  not  be 
49 


50  GENESIS 

banished  by  virtuous  platitudes  or  moral  snob- 
bery. Besides  the  innate  instinct  there  is  the 
thousandfold  example  of  the  world  around  us  in 
entire  contradiction  with  the  teachings  of  the 
church  and  school. 

Between  these  two  extremes  our  growing  youth 
has  to  contend  with.  He  naturally  chooses  the 
one  according  to  his  nature,  especially  after  he 
has  lost  all  confidence  in  his  parents  and  teachers 
when  he  has  found  out  their  lies.  When  the  grow- 
ing mind  of  the  child  seeks  explanation  as  to  the 
birth  of  babies,  even  in  this  enlightened  day,  he 
is  answered  with  evasion  and  falsehood.  Noth- 
ing is  more  calculated  to  destroy  the  child's  con- 
fidence than  this.  Many  a  young  girl,  upon  first 
learning  from  some  elder  companion  of  her  own 
sex,  or,  by  insinuations  of  some  vulgar  neighbor's 
boy,  the  truth  of  sex,  has  become  horrified  at  the 
thought  that  her  beloved  mother  has  lied  to  her. 
Many  a  child  is  dismayed  at  the  discovery  that 
he  has  been  deceived,  and  his  family  has  received 
a  blow  that  no  after-years  can  efface. 

The  results  of  the  lies  and  the  shaken  confi- 
dence in  parents  and  teachers  are  certain  errone- 
ous ideas  of  the  sex  functions  which  are  most 
pernicious  in  their  influence  upon  character  and 
conduct.  The  real  purpose  of  the  sex  function  is 
entirely  forgotten.  Chastity  is  declared  by  the 
modern  radical  to  be  impossible.  The  purpose  of 
the  sex  function  is  proclaimed  to  be  sensual 


MORAL   CONFUSION  51 

pleasure.  This  modern  school  preaches  that  one 
has  a  natural  right  to  indulge  his  sensual  im- 
pulse as  he  pleases.  They  call  it  in  German  "sich 
ausleben,"  and  claim  that  such  indulgence  is  a 
physical  necessity,  essential  to  the  preservation  of 
health. 

This  perverse.,  unnatural  education  has,  fur- 
thermore, caused  in  large  circles  of  peoples  a  kind 
of  a  perverse  sense  of  shame.  The  mere  nude 
arms  or  legs  of  a  small  school  girl,  the  furnish- 
ings of  a  public  bath-house,  the  naked  limbs  of  a 
Tirolian  peasant,  or  the  grandest  works  of  art 
awaken  in  them  lascivious  thoughts. 

Especially  early  masturbators  show  a  depraved 
sense  of  shame.  Nothing,  says  Krafft-Ebing,  is 
so  prone  to  contaminate  and,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, even  exhaust  the  source  of  all  noble 
and  ideal  sentiments  which  arise  from  a  normally 
developed  sexual  instinct  as  the  practice  of  mas- 
turbation in  early  years.  The  false  sense  of  shame 
causes,  by  the  secretiveness  in  our  education,  this 
modern  fig-leaf  modesty  and  prudery  which  at- 
tributes a  particular  obscene  meaning  to  every- 
thing sexual.  It  has  created  that  diseased  im- 
agination, depraved  beyond  all  hope,  which  can 
find  any  prurient  gratification  in  the  cold  chaste 
nakedness  of  ancient  marble.  Individuals  with 
such  traits  are  accustomed  to  interject  their  own 
diseased  imagination,  guilty  conscience  and  ob- 
scene sentiments  into  the  purest  artistic  creation. 


52  GENESIS 

These  diseased  sentiments  have  created  the  fig 
leaves  in  art,  be  they  sculptured,  painted, 
written  or  spoken.  But  their  aim  to  conceal  by 
these  coverings  is  always  frustrated.  For  by 
drawing  attention  to  what  they  conceal  under- 
neath they  awaken  lewdness  and  excite  sensuality 
much  more  than  does  simple  nudity. 

Worse  than  Irypocrisy  in  art  is  the  prudery  so 
lamentably  manifested  in  daily  life.  The  girl 
who  blushes  the  most  readily  and  hangs  her  head 
in  shame  at  the  slightest  indiscreet  word  usually 
offers  the  least  resistance  when  one  gets  her  be- 
hind the  door.  When  she  blushes  at  the  word 
"leg"  she  generally  has  cause  to  blush  for  some- 
thing more  tangible  than  the  utterance  of  a  word. 
She  is  the  one  who  constantly  wears  the  placard— 
"I  am  a  woman  and  you  are  a  man."  The  truly 
modest  girl  talks  to  a  young  man  as  if  he  were 
another  girl,  or  she  another  man. 

Aside  from  the  damage  to  youth  in  its  later 
periods  of  life,  through  this  prevailing  secrecy 
in  matters  sexual,  children  begin  to  suffer  very 
early  in  life.  The  researches  of  Freu^d  have 
shown  that  early  childhood — until  the  sixth  year 
— must  be  considered  as  an  exceptional  epoch  in 
sex  evolution.  The  impressions  of  this  time,  al- 
though they  play  a  small  role  in  our  conscious 
thoughts  later  on,  still  decide  our  entire  future 
development,  especially  in  regard  to  sex.  The 
sex  impulse  of  most  men  takes  its  form  and  direc- 


MORAL   CONFUSION  53 

tion  in  this  epoch.  If  the  child  is  not  properly 
taught,  the  result  will  be  masturbating  practices, 
a  bodily  deterioration  and  a  nervous  exhaustion 
of  the  whole  physical  force. 

The  important  relations  of  the  sex  function  to 
mental  and  physical  development  are  well  known. 
The  effects  upon  the  mind  are  often  more  marked 
than  upon  the  body.  The  disorders  are  in  many 
cases  the  causes  of  backwardness  of  children. 
They  are  apt  to  be  restless,  dull  or  listless.,  with 
inability  to  concentrate  their  minds  upon  their 
studies. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Change  of  Policy. 

THE  preservation  of  the  race  requires,  on  the 
one  hand,  that  the  sexual  impulse  should 
have  an  immense  force,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
necessary  to  oppose  strong  dams -"to  its  rapid 
streams.  This  necessity  has  become  more  and 
more  recognized  in  certain  circles  in  recent  years. 
Interest  in  sexual  pedagogy  is  becoming  more  pro- 
nounced, as  is  shown  by  the  enormous  increase  of 
literature  on  this  subject.  In  former  years  we 
acted  like  the  ostrich,  who  hides  his  head  in  the 
sand  and  thinks  danger  has  now  passed.  But 
nowadays  we  recognize  that  it  is  time  to  come  out 
of  the  swamp  into  which  our  ideas  of  sexual  life 
have  sunk.  Through  the  growth  of  large  cities 
immorality  is  on  the  increase,  and  correspond- 
ingly the  general  appreciation  of  the  importance 
of  the  theme  is  also  on  the  increase.  We  already 
see  a  revolution  at  hand.  The  tenor  of  sentiment 
is  changing,  and  a  wave  of  sex  education  has  al- 
ready begun  to  spread  through  the  progressive 
countries  of  the  world.  Sexual  enlightenment 
whizzes  through  the  air,  and  expressions  which 
in  former  days  we  dared  not  even  whisper,  only 
54 


THE    CHANGE    OF    POLICY  55 

holding  our  breath  back,,  are  now  current  coin  in 
the  conversation  of  numerous  parents,  pedagogues 
and  physicians.  There  is  a  rapidly  increasing  in- 
terest in  all  matters  pertaining  to  public  health 
and  to  the  restriction  and  prevention  of  diseases. 
All  men  and  women  who  have  the  welfare  of 
humanity  at  heart  agree  upon  the  necessity  of 
sexual  enlightenment.  The  only  point  of  con- 
tention is  the  knowledge  in  regard  to  copulation. 
Everything  else,  as  impregnation,,  conception  or 
birth  have  their  scruples  only  in  relation  to  copu- 
lation. The  latter  is  still  considered,  by  many 
people,  as  something  offensive. 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  this  is  a  delicate  mat- 
ter to  handle.  Still  everything  may  be  revealed 
intelligently  and  fearlessly  to  the  child  without 
offending  his  sense  of  modesty.  Maybe  future 
generations  will  solve  the  problem  how  to  in- 
struct our  children  in  the  science  of  sexuality 
without  concealing  even  the  most  delicate  matter. 
The  present  generation  was  born  and  brought  up 
under  our  present  standard  of  modesty,  and  this 
fact  must  be  reckoned  with.  Many  things,  there- 
fore, must  be  omitted  in  our  instruction  of  the 
child  in  order  to  satisfy  the  most  conservative  and 
fastidious. 


SECOND,   SPECIAL  PART 


CHAPTER  X. 
First  Lesson:  Infancy  and  Early  Childhood. 

THE  aim  of  sexual  pedagogy  is  to  induce  a 
healthy  natural  sex  life.  The  question  is 
how  shall  we  teach  our  children  the  mysteries  of 
sex  life  and  in  this  way  protect  them  first  against 
the  dangers  of  the  habit  of  self-abuse  and  then 
against  the  dangers  of  infection  from  the  virus 
of  gonorrhoea  or  syphilis  without  awakening 
eroticism. 

The  teaching  of  sexuality  must  begin  with  the 
birth  of  the  child,  but  it  must  differ  with  the 
different  epochs  of  the  child's  life.  The  lessons 
in  infancy  differ  from  those  of  the  other  periods 
by  being  more  of  a  negative  nature.  This  period 
is  the  time  when  the  child  has  as  yet  no  interest 
where  man  comes  from.  It  is  the  time  when  he 
has  as  yet  no  sense  of  shame.  The  sense  of  shame, 
in  regard  of  nudity  of  his  sexual  organs,  begins  to 
develop  about  the  fourth  year  of  the  child's  life, 
provided  he  is  not  taught  earlier.  This  feeling 
56 


FIRST    LESSON    FOR    INFANCY  57 

of  shame  is  originally  without  psycho-sexual  con- 
sciousness. It  refers  not  to  these  parts  of  the 
body  as  the  organs  of  sex.,  but  rather  to  the  entire 
genito-anal  region  as  such,  which,  as  the  place  of 
the  excretions,  becomes  the  center  of  a  feeling 
which  originates  from  the  fear  of  provoking  dis- 
gust. 

This  feeling  of  shame,  in  the  presence  of  the 
nude  organs,  begins  about  the  fourth  year  of  the 
child's  age  and  coincides  with  the  time  when  he 
usually  puts  the  first  question,  where  man  comes 
from.  The  entire  period  previously  the  child  is 
without  psycho-sexual  consciousness.  Still  the 
pedagogy  of  this  early  period  is  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  the  mother  must  be  made  aware  of 
her  great  responsibility  at  this  critical  juncture. 

The  undisturbed  development  of  the  sexual  or- 
gans is  of  great  necessity  for  the  development  of 
the  entire  body.  These  organs  are  excessively 
sensitive  and  are  damaged  by  any  irritation. 
Their  premature  activity  is  especially  detrimental 
to  health. 

At  this  period  there  can  be  naturally  no  other 
use  than  the  habit  of  self-abuse.  This  habit  often 
begins  at  an  early  age.  The  natural  curiosity  of 
children  leads  them  to  an  examination  and  finally 
to  a  titillation  of  their  private  organs,  often  with- 
out the  aid  of  any  vicious  instruction.  When  the 
child  has  thus  found,  by  accident,  that  a  certain 
mode  of  handling  these  organs  is  attended  with 


58  GENESIS 

pleasurable  sensations,  he  repeats  the  action,  and 
the  habit  is  established. 

The  habit  of  masturbation  is  sometimes  con- 
tracted, in  infancy,  by  the  laxness  of  stupid  serv- 
ants or  ignorant  mothers.  They  often  ti-y  to  calm 
the  infant  by  tickling  the  child's  genitals.  This 
practice  causes  sexual  irritation  and  leads  to 
masturbation. 

Another  bad  practice  resorted  to  by  nurses  and 
mothers  is  to  amuse  the  child  by  gently  striking 
the  buttocks  of  the  infant,  a  region  which  is 
highly  erogenous.  Every  one  who  has  read  "Les 
Confessions/'  by  Eousseau,  knows  how  this 
savant,  when  a  boy,  became  sexually  excited  when 
his  nurse  punished  him  by  beating  him  upon  his 
buttocks. 

Thus  nurses  and  even  mothers  innocently  in- 
duce the  child  to  the  habit  of  masturbation.  But 
the  greater  danger  comes  from  nurses  who  delib- 
erately handle  the  infants'  organs  out  of  lust. 
They  touch  and  strike  the  external  organs  of  boys 
as  well  as  of  girls  for  their  own  pleasure.  There 
are  few  nurse-girls,  says  Parke,  who  do  not  de- 
light to  initiate  the  boy,  committed  to  their  care, 
in  sexual  matters.  He  relates  many  histories  of 
patients  who  were  induced  to  abnormal  practices 
by  their  nurses  in  early  youth.  Lawson-Tait  says 
that  children  ought  never  to  be  allowed,  under 
any  circumstances,  to  sleep  with  servants.  In 
every  instance  where  he  found  a  number  of  chil- 


FIRST    LESSON    FOR    INFANCY  59 

dren  affected  by  masturbation  the  contagion  has 
been  traced  to  a  servant.  Freund  found  in  cases 
of  severe  youthful  hysteria  that  the  starting  point 
could  frequently  be  traced  to  some  sexual  manipu- 
lations by  servants,  nurse  girls  and  governesses, 
He  also  relates  several  such  examples. 

Another  cause  for  the  habit  of  masturbation  in 
infants  is  uncleanliness,  which  causes  irritation. 
To  relieve  the  same  the  child  uses  friction  with 
his  hands.  This  rubbing  causes  a  pleasing  sensa- 
tion. Having  made  this  discovery,  the  child  be- 
gins to  manipulate  the  organs  periodically. 

In  little  girls  thigh-crossing  is  usually  the  mode 
adopted  in  the  practice  of  masturbation,,  by  in- 
fants, and  parents  ought  to  know  what  attacks  as 
the  following  mean.  Townsend  records  a  case  of 
an  infant,  eight  months  of  age,  who  would  cross 
her  right  thigh  over  the  left,  close  her  eyes,  clench 
her  fists,  and,  after  a  minute  or  two,  there  would 
be  complete  relaxation  with  perspiration  and  red- 
ness of  the  face.  This  would  occur  once  a  week, 
or  oftener.  Jacobi  relates  a  case  of  a  girl  of  three 
years  who,  at  regular  intervals,  had  attacks 
of  masturbation  while  sitting  down.  She  began 
by  keeping  her  thighs  closely  joined,  or  crossing 
her  legs.  She  then  began  to  move  and  rub  her 
limbs  violently.  She  got  purple  in  her  face,  be- 
gan to  perspire  and  to  twitch  about  her  eyes, 
which  looked  excited.  She  then  used  to  lean  back 
exhausted,  sighing  and  breathing  hurriedly. 


60  GENESIS 

If  such  actions  arc  not  recognized  and  speedily 
interupted  and  prevented,,  the  child  is  apt  to 
gratify  himself  frequently  in  this  way  until  the 
action  becomes  a  fixed  habit  with  results  most 
detrimental  to  the -child's  health.  For  when  the 
sexual  power  is  prematurely  exercised  permanent 
injury  is  done  to  the  individual.  A  great  re- 
sponsibility, therefore,  rests  upon  parents,  and  it 
is  deplorable  that  so  few  know  how  to  prevent  these 
bad  habits,  which  accounts  for  the  frequency  of 
masturbation. 

Prof.  Berger  says:  Masturbation  is  such  a  fre- 
quent manipulation  that  out  of  a  hundred  boys 
and  girls  ninety-nine  have  temporarily  been  ad- 
dicted to  it,  and  the  hundredth,  the  so-called  pure 
individual,  is  concealing  the  truth.  Moll  quotes 
a  physician  as  saying:  "Whoever  denies  hav- 
ing masturbated,  has  often  only  forgotten  it." 
He  also  mentions  another  physician  as  asserting: 
"Whoever  claims  of  never  having  masturbated  is 
still  doing  it." 

If  such  practices  begin  in  infancy,  the  harm 
done  is  incalculable.  Since  no  animal  is  so  help- 
less during  infancy,  and  none  remains  so  long  in 
a  state  of  complete  dependence  on  its  parents  as 
the  human  child,  it  is  the  parents'  duty  to  pro- 
tect the  child  against  the  impairment  of  his 
health.  For  an  unimpaired  youth  is  necessary  for 
his  development  to  full  power  and  ability. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  duty  of  parents  to  prevent 


FIRST    LESSON    FOR    INFANCY  61 

the  proverbial  nurse  girl  from  handling  or  touch- 
ing the  infant's  sex  organs  and  save  their  chil- 
dren from  becoming  early  onanists.  In  this  re- 
spect all  nurses,  good,  bad  and  indifferent,  need 
watching. 

It  should  be  the  rule  of  the  nursery  not  to 
touch  the  child's  organs  or  to  handle  the  buttocks 
in  any  way,  thus  avoiding  early  sexual  excite- 
ment. It  is  also  wrong  to  allow  children  to  sleep 
in  the  same  room  with  their  nurses  or  in  the 
same  bed  with  other  children. 

The  parents  have  further  to  look  after  the 
health  of  these  organs  and  summon  medical  aid 
in  case  of  any  deviation  from  the  normal.  A 
long  tight  prepuce,  eczema  of  the  genitals,  pin- 
worms  of  the  rectum,  haemorrhoids,  fissures  of 
the  anus,  all  lead  to  rubbing,  pressing  or  handling 
of  the  genitals.  Medical  measures,  therefore, 
must  be  taken  to  remove  these  anomalies. 

Every  time  the  boy  is  bathed  the  foreskin 
should  be  gently  retracted  and  bathed  like  the 
rest  of  the  body  and  replaced  in  its  former  posi- 
tion. If  difficulty  is  experienced  in  retracting  or 
replacing  a  retracted  foreskin,  a  physician  should 
be  called  in  to  circumcise  the  child.  The  mother 
should  further  give  all  the  attention  necessary  for 
cleanliness  in  little  girls.  When  the  children 
begin  to  wash  themselves,  the  little  girl  should 
be  taught  to  wash  her  external  organs  with  luke- 
warm water,  just  as  she  does  her  face,  and  L'i;tle 


62  GENESIS 

boys  should  be  taught  to  remove  the  smegma 
from  the  interior  of  the  prepuce. 

Overfeeding,  effemination,  passion  for  dress 
and  coquetry,  all  of  which  make  apes  out  of  our 
children  and  degrade  and  abase  them  to  playthings 
of  their  vain  mothers,  must  be  avoided.  We  must 
further  eliminate  sweets  in  feeding,  irritation 
through  tight  clothing,  stupid  theatrical  per- 
formances, home  parties,  children's  balls  or  mas- 
querades. 

We  must  further  take  care  that  the  bed  should 
not  be  too  soft,  the  covers  too  heavy.  The  child 
must  lie  straight  in  bed,  with  the  hands  never 
under  the  cover.  The  child  must  be  taught  to 
rise,  urinate  and  dress  as  soon  as  he  wakes  up. 
In  short,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  parents  to  know 
that  there  is  no  undue  irritation  of  the  private 
organs.  When  we  see  that  the  children  have  the 
inclination  to  stay  too  long  in  bed,  after  awaken- 
ing, or  to  remain  too  long  in  the  toilet,  or  to  be 
often  alone;  when  we  observe  suspicious  positions 
of  the  body,  or  find  the  children  making  certain 
motions  of  rubbing,  we  must  be  doubly  watchful, 
for  these  are  generally  the  symptoms  of  masturba- 
tion. 

As  soon  as  children  are  old  enough  to  under- 
stand, they  should  be  taught  never  to  handle  the 
sexual  organs  unnecessarily.  They  must  learn  to 
know  that  every  touching  of  the  genital  organs  is 
harmful  to  the  body,  just  as  poking  the  fingers 


FIRST    LESSON    FOR    INFANCY  63 

into  the  nose,  ear  or  eyes.  Just  as  the  eyes  are 
sensitive  and  the  sight  easily  damaged,  so  the  or- 
gans of  sex  are  sensitive  and  if  not  let  alone,  great 
harm  may  result.  For  that  reason  they  must 
only  be  touched  with  a  pair  of  tongs.  But  we 
must  not  give  the  children  the  impression  that  it 
is  particularly  vicious  to  touch  these  "shameful" 
parts ;  for  there  is  nothing  shameful  in  the  human 
body,  and  least  of  all  the  organs  destined  to  create 
new  life.  We  should  only  tell  our  children  that 
the  handling  of  these  organs  injures  health,  mind 
and  character  and  sense  of  honor,  just  as  touch- 
ing the  fragile  reproductive  organs  of  the  flowers 
will  destroy  their  function. 

The  child  must  be  told  that  unnecessary 
handling  of  or  fingering  any  part  of  the  body  or 
moving  with  the  legs  is  a  breach  of  good  man- 
ners, and  is  wicked  besides;  for  the  human  body 
is  a  sacred  thing,  intended  for  important  and 
noble  ends.  It  must  not,  therefore,  be  played  or 
trifled  with.  The  sex  organs,  in  particular,  are 
intrusted  with  the  wonderful  power  of  transmit- 
ting life.  Hence  this  power  should  not  be  im- 
paired by  abusing  or  injuring  the  organs  in  any 
way. 

But  while  the  early  watching  of  the  cleanliness 
of  the  organs,  of  the  details  of  diet,  of  sleeping 
and  dressing  and  early  warning  against  playing 
with  the  sexual  organs,  or  rubbing  the  same,  is 
very  necessary,  we  must  not  attribute  too  much 


62  GENESIS 

boys  should  be  taught  to  remove  the  smegma 
from  the  interior  of  the  prepuce. 

Overfeeding,  effemination,  passion  for  dress 
and  coquetry,  all  of  which  make  apes  out  of  our 
children  and  degrade  and  abase  them  to  playthings 
of  their  vain  mothers,  must  be  avoided.  We  must 
further  eliminate  sweets  in  feeding,  irritation 
through  tight  clothing,  stupid  theatrical  per- 
formances, home  parties,  children's  balls  or  mas- 
querades. 

We  must  further  take  care  that  the  bed  should 
not  be  too  soft,  the  covers  too  heavy.  The  child 
must  lie  straight  in  bed,  with  the  hands  never 
under  the  cover.  The  child  must  be  taught  to 
rise,  urinate  and  dress  as  soon  as  he  wakes  up. 
In  short,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  parents  to  know 
that  there  is  no  undue  irritation  of  the  private 
organs.  When  we  see  that  the  children  have  the 
inclination  to  stay  too  long  in  bed,  after  awaken- 
ing, or  to  remain  too  long  in  the  toilet,  or  to  be 
often  alone;  when  we  observe  suspicious  positions 
of  the  body,  or  find  the  children  making  certain 
motions  of  rubbing,  we  must  be  doubly  watchful, 
for  these  are  generally  the  symptoms  of  masturba- 
tion. 

As  soon  as  children  are  old  enough  to  under- 
stand, they  should  be  taught  never  to  handle  the 
sexual  organs  unnecessarily.  They  must  learn  to 
know  that  every  touching  of  the  genital  organs  is 
harmful  to  the  body,  just  as  poking  the  fingers 


FIRST    LESSON    FOR    INFANCY  63 

into  the  nose,  ear  or  eyes.  Just  as  the  eyes  are 
sensitive  and  the  sight  easily  damaged,  so  the  or- 
gans of  sex  are  sensitive  and  if  not  let  alone,  great 
harm  may  result.  For  that  reason  they  must 
only  be  touched  with  a  pair  of  tongs.  But  we 
must  not  give  the  children  the  impression  that  it 
is  particularly  vicious  to  touch  these  "shameful" 
parts ;  for  there  is  nothing  shameful  in  the  human 
body,  and  least  of  all  the  organs  destined  to  create 
new  life.  We  should  only  tell  our  children  that 
the  handling  of  these  organs  injures  health,  mind 
and  character  and  sense  of  honor,  just  as  touch- 
ing the  fragile  reproductive  organs  of  the  flowers 
will  destroy  their  function. 

The  child  must  be  told  that  unnecessary 
handling  of  or  fingering  any  part  of  the  body  or 
moving  with  the  legs  is  a  breach  of  good  man- 
ners, and  is  wicked  besides;  for  the  human  body 
is  a  sacred  thing,  intended  for  important  and 
noble  ends.  It  must  not,  therefore,  be  played  or 
trifled  with.  The  sex  organs,  in  particular,  are 
intrusted  with  the  wonderful  power  of  transmit- 
ting life.  Hence  this  power  should  not  be  im- 
paired by  abusing  or  injuring  the  organs  in  any 
way. 

But  while  the  early  watching  of  the  cleanliness 
of  the  organs,  of  the  details  of  diet,  of  sleeping 
and  dressing  and  early  warning  against  playing 
with  the  sexual  organs,  or  rubbing  the  same,  is 
very  necessary,  we  must  not  attribute  too  much 


66  GENESIS 

Hence,  when  at  the  birth  of  a  child  in  the  family 
or  the  coming  of  a  new  baby  in  a  neighbor's 
household  the  child  approaches  his  mother  with 
the  question.,  "whence  do  babies  come  from?"  he 
should  not  be  put  off  with  false  ideas  or  be  met 
with  evasive  answers.  If  the  pure-minded  child 
receives  such  answers  he  soon  realizes  that  the  re- 
plies do  not  meet  his  queries.  After  a  very  short 
time  the  child  begins  to  feel  that,  for  some  reason, 
he  can  not  understand,  the  mystery  is  not  to  be 
solved  for  him  by  the  members  of  his  family,  and 
he  ceases  to  ask  any  further  questions. 

But  the  sense  of  mystery  unsolved  lingers  with 
the  child  until  some  companion  tells  him  the  truth 
in  anything  but  a  pure  way.  He  now  regards  his 
own  birth  as  a  direct  result  of  a  sinful  act.  He 
is  given  the  impression  that  there  is  no  purity  in 
the  propagation  of  human  life,  and  he  thinks  he 
knows  now  the  reason  why  his  parents  did  not  tell 
him  the  truth.  His  confidence  in  his  mother  who 
told  him  the  lie  is  more  or  less  shaken,  and  his 
respect  for  his  parents  is  no  more  as  it  was  before. 

Hence,  when  the  child  asks  the  very  natural 
question  as  to  where  the  new  baby  came  from  he 
should  not  be  put  off  with  the  remark  that  the 
stork  brought  it,  or  the  doctor  did.  His  ques- 
tions must  be  properly  and  truthfully  answered, 
and  his  interest  in  such  matters  should  be  encour- 
aged. His  curiosity  upon  the  subject,  once  satis- 
fied, no  longer  continues. 


CHILDREN    FOUR    TO    SEVEN    YEARS  67 

It  goes  without  saying  that  enlightenment  in 
sexual  matters  should  not  be  forced  upon  the  child. 
We  must  not  thrust  upon  him  what  he  is  not  eager 
himself  to  know.  Instruction  should  only  be  given 
to  satisfy  the  child's  curiosity.  For  that  reason 
it  is  not  necessary  to  say  too  much  at  this  early 
age.  There  is,  for  instance,  no  need  for  the  ex- 
planation of  the  father's  part  in  the  process.  The 
child  does  not  seek  for  details.  But  there  is  noth- 
ing indecent  in  the  mother  telling  her  child,  upon 
the  question  whence  he  himself  came  from,  that__ 
he  was  grown  from  a  seed  implanted  in  her  own 
body. 

The  mother,  therefore,  should  explain  to  the 
child  that,  as  birds  come  from  eggs,  'and  flowers 
from  seeds,  so  also  children  come  from  seeds  or 
eggs  called  "ova."  These  ova  are  so  tiny  that 
they  can  not  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye,  and  so 
delicate  that  the  least  touch  would  injure  and  de- 
stroy them.  For  that  reason  they  can  not  be  laid 
outside.  Hence  every  child  is  implanted  as  a  seed  \ 
or  ovum  within  his  own  mother,  as  the  egg  in  the  . 
hen  or  the  roe  in  the  fish.  There,  in  a  place  pro- 
vided in  the  body  of  every  woman,  and  safe  from 
injury,  the  seed  is  nourished  by  the  life  blood  of 
the  mother.  When  she  breathes,  the  child  breathes, 
too;  when  the  mother  eats  and  drinks,  the  child 
gets  a  part  of  this  food.  There  the  child  lies  warm 
and  secure,  there  he  grows  delicately  and  tenderly 
under  the  heart  of  his  mother.  In  this  way  the 


OS  GENESIS 

seed  or  ovum  develops  into  a  baby,  strong  enough 
to  breathe  the  air.  By  this  time  the  place  has  be- 
come too  narrow  for  the  child.,  and  the  mother 
can  not  carry  him  any  longer.  Her  body,  there- 
fore, opens,  and  he  comes  to  light.  This  coming 
forth  of  the  child  from  his  mother's  body  into  the 
world,  which  is  called  to  be  born,  takes  place  at 
the  cost  of  much  suffering  and  pain  to  the  mother. 
It  costs  the  mother  the  greatest  pain  a  person 
can  endure  in  this  life.  Sometimes  she  has 
even  to  pay  with  her  own  life  for  that  of  her 
child. 

When  the  child  asks  whether  he  himself  had 
also  been  in  his  mother's  body,  the  mother  should 
answer:  certainly,  my  child,  I  carried  you  under 
my  heart  for  nine  months  and  nourished  you  with 
my  life-blood.  By  the  movements  of  your  tender 
little  body  in  this  narrow  place  you  were  known 
to  me  before  any  one  saw  you.  For  these  long 
months  we  lived  together,  you  deeply  hidden  with- 
in me.  Hence  you  are  my  flesh  and  my  blood,  a 
piece  of  myself,  and  for  that  reason  we  love  each 
other  so  much. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  child's  new  con- 
ception of  his  relation  to  his  mother  as  truly  a 
part  of  her  being  can  not  fail  to  deepen  and 
strengthen  his  natural  feeling  of  love  and  affec- 
tion toward  her  who  has  brought  him  into  the 
world. 

The  idea  of  generation  and  birth  will  thus  be 


CHILDREN    FOUR   TO    SEVEN    YEARS  69 

associated  with  the  mother's  relation  to  him  as  the 
source  of  life,  and  the  child  will  enjoy  the  naive 
pure  joy  that  he  was  so  intimately  connected  with 
his  mother,  and  will  have  the  greatest  reverence 
for  the  wonder  of  generation. 

After  the  child  has  been  told  his  origin  he 
should  be  admonished  not  to  talk  of  these  intimate 
subjects  with  others.  Especially  should  he  be 
warned  not  to  talk  to  his  friends  at  school  about 
these  things,  because  they  are  too  sacred  to  be  the 
subject  of  ordinary  gossip.  Boys  and  girls  who 
talk  about  such  things  are  low  and  vulgar  and  not 
fit  to  associate  with.  Besides  it  is  a  sign  of  sordid 
sentiments  to  have  secret  conversations  with  his 
comrades.  If  a  boy  or  a  girl  should  ever  ask  him 
whether  he  knows  where  babies  come  from,  the 
answer  should  b<>  that  he  knows,  but  does  not 
want  to  talk  about  it.  From  that  moment,  the 
child  must  be  told,  he  must  avoid  such  a  boy's  or 
girl's  company.  The  child  must  be  warned,  again 
and  again,  not  to  ask  any  questions,  especially 
about  such  things,  from  others.  If  he  wants  to 
know  anything  he  should  come  to  the  parents.  AV!IO 
will  always'  be  ready  and  willing  to  answer  every 
question  he  wishes  to  know. 

To  these  warnings  against  secret  conversations 
with  comrades  should  bo  added  the  admonition 
never  to  allow  anybody,  little  friends  or  adults,  to 
touch  or  play  with  any  part  of  the  child's  body.  If 
any  attempt  is  made  by  anyone,  no  matter  who  it 


70  GENESIS 

is,  a  friend,  brother,  sister  or  teacher,  to  do  so,  the 
child  must  be  taught  to  report  the  fact  imme- 
diately to  his  parents.  In  this  way  seduction  to 
masturbation,  from  this  source,  could  be  pre- 
vented. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Lessons  for  Children  Seven  to  Ten  Years  of  Age. 

THE  most  suitable  period  for  the  beginning  of 
the  real  sex  enlightenment  is  at  the  age  of 
seven  to  ten  years,,  according  to  the  mental  ca- 
pacity of  the  child.  At  this  time  parents,  who 
have  the  necessary  culture,  or,  in  most  cases,  teach- 
ers— the  child  at  this  period,  as  a  rule,  attends 
school — should  give  the  first  lesson  in  the  repro- 
duction of  plants. 

They  should  first,  in  a  general  way,  show  the; 
child  how  the  earth  keeps  the  seed  warm  and  moist 
until  the  small  leaves  are  strong  enough  to  push: 
themselves  toward  the  light  and  air,  where  they 
breathe,  grow,  and  bloom,  and  bring  forth  new 
seeds. 

The  child  should  then  be  told  that  the  basis  of 
all  life,  vegetable  as  well  as  animal,  is  the  cell. 

The  cell  is  a  minute  sac  or  bubble  filled  with  a 
certain  substance,  called  protoplasma.  The  proto- 
type cell  consists  of  a  membrane  and  two  constant 
parts,  the  cell-body  or  "cytoplasm,"  and  the  kernel 
or  "nucleus." 

We  will  now  explain  to  the  child  that  the  cell 
is  the  constituent  element  of  all  plants  and  an- 
71 


72  GENESIS 


imals.     Brain  and  kidney,  liver  and  muscle,  po- 
tato and  apple,  corn  and  grape,  they  all  consist 


CUT    I. 


Schema    of    a    cell:    a,    C'ell    membrane;    b,    cell-body    or 
cytoplasm;  c,  nucleus. 

of  cells.  As  the  brick  building  is  composed  of 
single  bricks,  so  is  every  organism  composed  of 
single  cells.  In  the  course  of  evolution  the  ele- 
mental cells  have  been  greatly  modified  and  have 
acquired  entirely  different  characteristics,  so  that 
the  tissues  scarcely  resemble  each  other.  Still,  all 
the  different  tissues  are  composed  of  cells. 

A  word  is  then  to  be  said  regarding  the  general 
elements  of  reproduction  in  living  beings.  The 
fact  should  be  brought  out  that  every  living  being 

\must  originate  from  a   pre-existent  living  being. 

(which  is  its  parent,  as  the  seed  in  plants  and  the 
egg  in  animals  (omne  vivum  e  vivo). 

We  will  explain  to  our  children  the  wonder  of 
nature  as  revealed  in  propagation.  The  existence 

jof  the  entire  organic  world  rests  upon  the  propa- 
gation of  plant  and  animal.  Without  propagation 
there  is  no  life,  but  eternal  torpidity  and  the  ster- 
ilitv  of  the  rock.  The  latter  remains  for  cen- 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  TEAKS       73 

turies  and  millennia  unmoved  and  unchanged,  in 
the  same  place,  and  never  produces  its  kind.  It  is 
different  in  the  organic  world.  Here  we  find  a 
perpetual  circle  of  life.  Scarcely  is  one  being- 
born,  when  it  brings  forth,  out  of  itself,  new  life, 
germs  of  new  beings,  which,  in  their  turn,  follow 
the  footsteps  of  their  ancestors. 

Here  is  the  place  to  tell  our  children   of  the 

CUT    IT. 


Kissiparous    reproduction    of    tin?    unutba.      The    single- 
celled  animal   "a"   is  divided   after  different   steps   into 
two  animals  "f"  and  "g." 


74  GENESIS 

different  modes  of  reproduction.  The  first  mode, 
the  "fissiparous,"  consists  in  the  division  of  the  en- 
tire single-celled  animal.  (Cut  2.)  As  soon  as  the 
[plant,  which  in  this  class  consists  of  a  single  cell, 
J  reaches  a  certain  size,  it  divides  itself  into  two  cells 
or  plants,  which  live  a  separate  life.  Fissiparous 
reproduction  is  found  in  Rhizopoda,  Infusoria, 
Anthozoa,,  Aster  idae,  Ophiuridae,  and  sometimes 
in  Medusae.  In  some  of  these  single-celled  be- 
ings a  certain  hermaphrodism  was  found  by  Hert- 
wig  in  one  and  the  same  cell.  A  certain  chemical 
contrast  between  male  and  female  plasma  may  be 
found  within  the  single  cell. 

The  second  mode  of  reproduction  is  the  so-called 
/"gemmiparous,"  which  consists  in  a  multiplica- 
tion by  means  of  buds.  The  new  cell  or  bud 
seldom  leaves  the  mother  cell.  Hence  from  the 
first  cell,  after  the  first  division,  we  have  two 
cells,  then,  by  further  division,  4,  8,  16,  32,  etc. 
In  this  way  an  intricate  system  of  canals  is  pro- 
duced, as  in  sponges  and  corals.  (Cut  3.)  Propa- 
gation by  gemmiparous  reproduction  is  found  in 
the  Hydra,  Armpolypus  and  in  a  great  many 
fungi.  In  these  multiple-celled  animals  different 
male  and  female  cells  are  often  found,  as  in  the 
common  polypus  in  sweet  water. 

The  third  mode  of  reproduction  is  the  sexual 
generation,  i.  e.,  a  reproduction  by  means  of  the 
conjugation  of  two  cellular  elements,  one  repre- 
senting the  male,  the  other  the  female  principle. 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS 


75 


Gemmiparous  reproduction,  as  in  sponges.     Schema. 

The  reproduction,  by  means  of  the  conjuga- 
tion of  two  cellular  elements,  is  already  found  in 
certain  single-celled  beings,  as  in  "infusoria." 
But  the  union  of  the  two  cells  is,  as  a  rule,  only 
temporary,  for  the  purpose  of  an  exchange  of 


; 


76  GENESIS 

matter.  The  united  parent  cells  separate  after  a 
mixture  or  "conjugation"  of  the  mutual  proto- 
plasma,  and  certain  changes  of  the  germ-plasma 
have  taken  place.  Only  after  going  through  this 
process J,s_the  germ  ripe  for  division,  as  in  the 
fissiparous  reproduction.  This  modification  of  the 
sex-reproduction  is  exceptional,  and  is  only  found 
in  the  lowest  forms  of  organic  life.  In  all  the 
other  forms  the  two  parent  cells,  after  their  union, 
form  a  single  cell.  In  this  way  the  enormous  ex- 
penditure of  force  required  in  unicellular  repro- 
duction is  lessened.  By  two  cells  doing  the  work 
of  one,  the  amount  of  nutritive  force  required  from 
each  is  smaller. 

The  propagation,  by  conjugation.,  is  the  first 
beginning  of  sexual  reproduction,  because,  as 
Haeckel  says,  it  is  affected  by  attraction  through 
the  affinity  of  the  different  contents  of  the  cells. 
Such  sexual  affinity  is  found  already  in  Imv  pi anls. 
as  protophytes  and  algae. 

The  attraction  the  different  cells  have  for  one 
another  presupposes  the  presence  of  a  certain  sen- 
sation in  the  cells.  The  sensation  which  drives 
the  cells  to  unite  is,  according  to  Haeckel.  of  a 
chemical  nature,  like  the  sense  of  taste  and  smell. 
Pfeifer  showed  that  the  flagelliform  cells  of  the 
ferns  are  attracted  by  the  evaporation  of  malic 
acid,  and  those  of  mosses  by  that  of  cane-sugar, 
just  as  they  are  attracted  by  the  exhalations  of  the 
ova.  The  reproduction  through  the  conjugation 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS       77 

of  one  cell  with  another  is  thus  affected  by  the 
quasi  satisfaction  of  cell-hunger. 

All  these  explanations  may  be  omitted  or  given 
according  to  the   mental  maturity   of   the   child.  / 
But  when  it  is  given,  it  must  be  done  without \ 
timidity,  and  the  children  will  get  accustomed  to 
hear  the  organs  of  sex  spoken  of  without  taking 
offense. 

\Ve  will  then  begin  the  study  of  the  fertiliza- 
tion of  phanerogamous  plants  (</>a»>cpo?  =  apparent 
and  ya/xo?  —marriage).  We  will  tell  the  child 
that  the  phanerogamous  plants  arc  those  whose  or- 
gans of  reproduction  arc  apparent  or  open  to  the 
eye ;  that  the  flower  represents  •  the  ensemble  of 
all  the  organs  that  serve  the  reproduction  of 
phanerogamous  plants. 

The  child  himself  may  anaylze  the  flower  when 
we  take  him  for  a  walk  in  the  woods  or  the  fields. 
\Ve  will  pick  up  one  and  the  other  flower  and 
hand  it  over  to  our  child  for  examination.  'He 
will  find  that  showy  fiWers  usually  consist  of  four 
circles  or  sets  of  organs,  the  sepals,  the  petals,  the 
stamens  and  the  pistils.  The  sepals,  taken  to- 
gether, constitute  the  calyx;  the  petals,  taken  to- 
gether, constitute  the  corolla.  The  members  of 
one  of  the  circles  of  organs  of  which  the  flower 
is  composed  may  join  each  other  and  become 
adnate.  The  calyx  tube,  for  instance,  may  be 
adnate  to  the  ovary,  etc.  In  this  way  the  great 
variety  of  flowers  is  created. 


78 


GENESIS 
CUT    IV. 


St 


A   complete   flower:     st,   stamen;    pi,   pistil;    pe,   petal; 
s,  sepal;  ca,  calyx;  c,  corolla.     After  Bergen. 

• 

The  essential  organs  of  the  flower  are  the 
stamens  and  pistils,  while  the  calyx  and  corolla 
form  the  floral  envelopes,  or  the  so-called  perianth. 
Flowers  which  contain  the  four  sets  of  organs  are 
said  to  be  complete,  those  which  have  the  essential 
organs  only  are  called  perfect  flowers.  The 
stamen  represents  the  male  organ,  and  the  pistil 
the  female  organ  of  the  flower. 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS 


79 


Complete  and  perfect  flowers  are  hermaphro- 
ditic, for  the  male  organ  or  androcele  and  the 
female  organ  or  gynocele  are  situated  in  the  one 
and  the  same  flower.  The  unisexual  flowers  are 
those  where  the  stamens  and  the  pistils  are  pro- 
duced on  separate  flowers,  as  in  the  willow. 

CUT   V. 


Water  lily.     Petals  and   stamens  adnate  to  the  ovary. 
After  Bergen. 


Stamen  and  pistil  may  not  only  be  produced 
on  separate  flowers,  but  the  staminate  and  pistillate  i 
flowers  themselves  may    be    borne    on    different* 
plants,  as  in  hickory,  hazel  or  Indian  corn.     Such 
plants  are  called  dioecious  or  of-two-households. 
When  both  kind  of  flowers  appear  on  the  same 


80 


GENESIS 


individual,  the  plant  is  called  monoecious  or  of- 
one-household. 

f  early  meadow  rue 
Dioecious  plants  are  J  willow 

I  poplar 

birch,  hazel. 


Monoecious  plants  are. 


hickory,  alder,  beech 


walnut,  oak,  chestnut 
The  stamen,  or  the  male  organ  of  the  flower, 
consists   of   a   hollow   portion   called   the   anther, 
which  is  borne  on  a  stalk  called  the  filament.    In- 

CUT   VI. 


Stamen,     a,   anther;    f,  filament.     After  Bergen. 

side  of  the  anther  is  found  a  powdery  or  pasty  sub- 
stance called  the  pollen. 

The  shape  of  the  anther  and  the  way  in  which  it 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS 


81 


opens  depend  largely  upon  the  way  in  which  the 
pollen  is  to  be  discharged  and  how  it  is  carried 
from  flower  to  flower.  As  a  rule,  the  anther  opens 
by  the  cells  being  split  length-wise,  or  by  little 
holes  at  the  top. 

CUT    VII. 


Pollen   grains. 


s,    spots   where   the    inner    coat   bursts. 
After  Bergen. 


The  pollen  in  many  plants  is  a  fine  dry  powder, 
in  others  it  is  somewhat  sticky  or  pasty.  The 
forms  of  the  pollen-grains  are  various.  Each 
pollen-grain  consists  of  a  single  cell  and  is  cov- 
ered by  a  thick  outer  and  a  thin  inner  wall  or  coat. 
At  the  outer  coat  there  are  spots  at  which  the 


82 


GENESIS 


inner  coat  of  the  grain  is  finally  to  burst  through 
the  outer  one,  pushing  its  way  out  in  the  form  of 
a  slender  thin-walled  tube.  The  contents  of  the 
pollen  is  a  thickish  protoplasma,  full  of  little 
opake  particles,  and  usually  containing  grains  of 
starch  and  little  drops  of  oil. 

The  pistil,  or  the  female  organ  of  the  flower, 
usually  consists  of  a  small  hollow  chamber  called 
the  ovary,  which  contains  the  ovules,  and  of  a 
slender  portion  or  stalk,  called  the  style.  At  the 


CUT    VIII. 


.sti 


sty 


ov 


Pistil,     sti,  stigma;  sty,  style;  ov,  ovule.    After  Bergen. 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS       83 

top  of  the  latter  is  found  a  ridge,  knob,  or  point, 
which  is  called  the  stigma. 

The  stigma  consists  of  cells  loosely  arranged 
over  the  surface.  These  cells  secrete  a  moist 
liquid,  to  which  the  pollen  grains  adhere  when 
they  come  in  contact  with  the  stigma.  Beneath 
these  superficial  cells,  running  down  through  the 
style,  there  are  found  long  cells,  with  intermediate 
spaces,  through  which  the  pollen  tubes  reach  the 
ovary.  (Cut  9.) 

The  ovules  are  not  borne  indiscriminately  by 
any  part  of  the  lining  of  the  ovary.  They  grow 
in  a  line  running  along  one  side  of  the  ovary,  as 
in  the  pea  pod.  This  ovule-bearing  line  is  called 
the  placenta. 

The  ovule  usually  exists  as  a  roundish  or  egg- 
shaped  mass,  with  a  small  opening  leading  into 
the  apex.  This  opening  leads  to  a  sac  inside  the 
ovule,  which  is  filled  with  a  soft  protoplasmatic 
material  and  cells,  and  is  known  as  the  embryo 
sac.  Minute  cells  are  found  at  the  apex  of  the 
ovule  from  the  development  of  which  the  embryo 
is  produced. 

The  microscopical  part  of  the  anatomy  of  the 
flower  is  a  little  too  intricate  to  be  grasped  by 
the  average  child  at  the  early  age  of  seven  to  ten 
years.  But  it  suffices  that  the  majority  of  children 
will  be  able,  by  these  lessons,  to  get  a  general  idea 
of  the  structure  of  the  flower. 

After  the  child  has  become  acquainted  with  the 


84 


GENESIS 


anatomy  of  the  flower,  with  the  female  principle, 
tln»  pistil,  stigma,  style,  ovary,  ovule  and  placenta. 


CUT    IX. 


Stigma  of  thorn-apple  with  pollen,  p,  pollen  forming 
into  a  pollen-tube;  i,  intermediate  space.  After  Bergen. 

and  the  male  principle,  the  stamen,  anther  and 
pollen,  we  may  begin  to  explain  to  him  the  fer- 
tilization of  the  plant. 

By  the  fertilization  of  a  plant  is  understood 
the  union  of  the  pollen  with  the  ovule,  or,  to  lie 
more  explicit,  the  union  of  the  nucleus  of  a  pollen- 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS       85 

cell  with  the  nucleus  of  a  cell,  at  the  apex  of  the 
embryo  sac  of  the  ovule.  In  this  way  a  cell  is 
produced  containing  material  derived  from  the 
pollen  and  from  the  ovule  cell.  The  necessary 
feature  of  the  process  of  fertilization  is  thus  the 
union  of  the  essential  elements  of  two  cells  to 
form  a  new  one  from  which  the  future  plant  is 
to  spring. 

As  soon  as  the  pollen-grain  lodges  on  the  stigma 
it  begins  to  form  into  a  pollen-tube.  (Cut  10.)  In 
more  or  less  time  it  makes  its  way  through  the 
style  into  the  ovary.  It  then  penetrates  the  open- 
ing at  the  apex  of  the  ovule,  reaches  one  of  the 
cells  and  transfers  its  nucleus  into  an  egg-cell.  The 
latter  begins  a  I  once  to  form  cell-walls  and  in- 
creases by  continued  subdivision  to  the  plant- 
cm  bryo. 

Only  one  pollen-tube  is  necessary  to  fertilize 
each  ovule.  The  reason  why  plants  produce  more 
pollen  than  ovules — the  ratio  is  from  1 :8  to  1 :1000 
— is  because  so  many  pollen  are  lost  on  their  way 
to  the  ovules. 

The  mechanism  of  the  forwarding  of  the  pollen 
to  the  ovule  varies  in  different  plants.  In  those 
plants  in  which  the  ovule  may  be  impregnated  by 
the  pollen  of  the  same  plant,  or  even  of  the  same 
llowcr.  fertilization  is  comparatively  simple.  But 
in  a  great  many  plants  the  pollen,  in  order  to  ac- 
complish the  most  successful  fertilization,  must 
come  from  another  plant  of  the  same  kind  and 


86 


GENESIS 


CUT   X. 


Pt 


Fertilization  of  the  ovule,      st,   stigma;    p,   pollen;    pt, 
pollen-tube;  o,  ovary;  e,  embryo-sac.    After  Bergen. 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS       87 

not  from  the  individual  which  bears  the  ovules 
to  be  fertilized.  Here  nature  has  devised  different 
ways  to  carry  the  pollen  from  one  plant  to  an- 
other. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  wind  which  ac- 
complishes this  task.  The  wind-fertilized  flowers 
have  dry  and  powdery  pollen,  and  the  pistils  are 
feathery,  adapted  to  catch  flying  pollen-grains. 
The  flowers  are  characterized  by  their  inconspicu- 
ousness.  They  are  usually  greenish,  without  any 
odor  or  nectar. 

Another  means  to  forward  the  pollen,  from  one 
plant  to  another,  is  by  way  of  insects.  Most  of  the 
showy,  sweet-scented  or  otherwise  conspicuous 
kinds  of  flowers  are  entirely  dependent  for  fertili- 
zation on  the  transference  of  pollen  from  one 
plant  to  another  by  insects.  The  showy  colors 
and  odors  serve  to  attract  insects  to  visit  them  for 
their  nectar.  Insects  and  flowers  are  interde- 
pendent upon  one  another.  For  many  insects 
depend  mainly  upon  the  nectar  and  the  pollen  of 
flowers  for  their  food.  These  insects  usually  visit 
only  one  kind  of  flower  during  the  day  and  thus 
carry  only  one  kind  of  pollen.  They  go  straight 
from  one  flower  to  another  and  carry  a  good  deal 
of  pollen,  entangled  in  the  scales  or  hairs  of  their 
bodies,  as  the  butterflies,  moths  and  most  of  the 
bees. 

Nearly  all  attractive  flowers,  even  if  they  can 
produce  some  seeds  when  self-fertilized,  do  far 


88  GENESIS 

better  when  fertilized  by  the  pollen  from  the 
flower  of  another  plant.  Fertilization  of  corn, 
common  ragweed  and  pines,  for  instance,  is  best 
accomplished  by  pollen  which  are  carried  from 
the  stamens  (tassel)  of  one  plant  to  the  pistils 
(silk)  of  another  plant. 

The  means  to  attract  insects  are  threefold: 
'nectar,  odor  and  color. 

The  nectar  is  a  sweet  liquid  which  the  flower 
secretes  by  means  of  nectar-glands.  The  latter  are 
usually  situated  near  the  base  of  the  flower. 

Many  plants  attract  insect  visitors  by  giving  up 
a  sweet  scent.  These  are  especially  the  small 
flowers,  like  the  mignonette  or  evening  primrose. 

The  color  is  another  means  by  which  the  flower 
attracts  insects  or  birds.  The  principal  color  of 
the  flower  is  most  frequently  due  to  showy  ju-tals. 

Some  flowers  show  on  the  petals  stripes  or  rows 
of  spots  of  a  color  different  from  the  other  parts 
of  the  petal.  These  stripes  lead  toward  the  nec- 
taries and  point  out  to  the  insects  the  way  to  the 
nectar.  On  its  way  the  insect  leaves  pollen  on  the 
stigma  and  becomes  dusted  with  new  pollen  to  be 
carried  to  other  flowers. 

Different  kinds  of  insects  are  especially  at- 
tracted by  different  colors.  Some  flowers  with 
very  long  tubulated  corollas  depend  entirely  upon 
birds  to  carry  their  pollen  for  them. 

In  complete  and  perfect  flowers,  where  stamen 
and  pistil  are  present  in  the  same  flower,  self- 


CHILDREN  SEVEN  TO  TEN  YEARS       89 

fertilization  would  be  the  rule  if  there  were  not 
certain  means  for  its  prevention. 

In  the  first  place,  the  pollen  of  another  plant 
frequently  prevails  over  that  which  the  flower  may 
shed  over  its  own  pistil.  When  both  kinds  are 
placed  over  the  stigma,  at  the  same  time,  it  is 
the  foreign  pollen  which  causes  fertilization. 

Another  means  to  prevent  self-fertilization  con- 
sists in  the  stamens  and  pistils  maturing  at  differ- 
ent times.  The  insect  visitor,  on  its  way  to  the 
nectary,  brushes  against  the  ripe  stamens  of  a 
certain  flower  in  its  earlier  stage.  It  can  not  de- 
posit the  acquired  pollen  upon  the  stigma  of  the 
same  flower  and  thus  cause  fertilization,  because 
the  pistil  is  not  yet  ripe.  But,  on  flying  to  a 
flower  in  the  later  stage,  when  the  stigma  has 
ripened  and  the  stamens  have  shed  all  their  pollen, 
the  insect  will  lodge  the  pollen  first  acquired  on 
the  ripe  stigma,  and  in  this  way  produce  the  de- 
sired cross-fertilization. 

When  the  ovule  has  been  fertilized,  the  ovary 
begins  to  grow  and  enlarge  until  it  is  matured. 
It  then  forms  with  any  intimately  connected  parts, 
the  fruit.  The  calyx  becomes  also  enlarged  and 
pulpy,  often  constituting  the  main  bulk  of  the 
mature  fruit,  as  in  apples,  pears  and  many  ber- 
ries. In  some  flowers,  as  the  daisy,  the  fruit 
consists  of  the  ovary  and  the  adherent  calyx- tube. 

The  one-celled  pistils  of  many  flowers,  as  the 
strawberry,  ripen  into  a  little  fruit  called  akene. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Lessons  for  Children  Ten  to  Thirteen  Years  of  Age. 

WHEN  the  child  has  become  conversant  with 
the  propagation  of  plants  and  terms  like 
male,  female,  germ  cells,  ovum  and  ovary  have 
been  repeatedly  pronounced,  in  his  presence,  with- 
out fear  or  hesitation,  he  may,  without  danger  to 
his  modesty,  begin  his  lessons  of  the  sex  pheno- 
mena in  the  animal  kingdom. 

In  these  lessons  we  will  follow  the  pedigree  of 
the  living  beings  where  the  vegetable  and  animal 
organisms  are  not  yet  clearly  distinguishable  from 
one  another,  as  is  the  case  with  the  great  multitude 
of  bacteria. 

This  class  of  animals  is  unicellular,  i.  e..  each 
animal  consists  of  a  single  cell  and  may  as  well 
be  counted  to  the  vegetable  as  to  the  animal  king- 
dom. The  identity  between  the  vegetable  and  an- 
imal cells  is  almost  perfect;  they  are  in  all  essen- 
tials composed  of  the  same  kind  of  substance. 

The  simplest  organisms  are  independently  liv- 
ing, single  protoplasmic  cells.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  kinds  of  these  single-celled  organisms, 
and  according  to  their  habit  of  general  nutrition 
they  are  arbitrarily  divided  into  single-celled  an- 
90 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS    91 

imals,  "Protozoa,"  and  single-celled  plants,  "Pro- 
tophyta." 

These  unicellular  organisms  show  that  the  cell 
forms  a  living  unit  and  that  it  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance in  the  economy  of  life.  It,  therefore,  de- 
serves a  closer  study  than  we  have  hitherto  given 
it.  The  cell  is  a  tiny  mass  of  protoplasma  with 
various  substances  secreted  by  or  held  in  it.  The 
protoplasm  is  differentiated  into  two  parts,  at 
least,  an  inner,  denser  smaller  part,  called  the 
nucleus,  and  an  outer  surrounding,  usually  larger 
portion,  called  the  cytoplasm.  In  close  proximity 
of  the  nucleus  are  often  found  minute  granules, 
situated  either  singly  or  in  pairs.  These  granules 
are  called  "centrosomes."  (Cut  11  A.) 

The  nucleus  or  kernel  shows  in  its  interior  a 
linin  net  and  deeply  staining  granules,  which, 
because  of  this  quality  are  called  chromatin. 

One  of  the  foremost  qualities  of  the  living  cell 
is  its  ability  to  multiply,  either  by  direct  division 
or  by  the  more  complicated  indirect  division  called 
"Mitosis"  or  "Karyokynesis."  In  the  indirect  divi- 
sion the  nucleus  is  divided  by  a  complicated 
process.  Simultaneously  the  cytoplasm  and  the 
entire  cell  is  also  divided. 

In  the  typical  cell  multiplication  two  parallel 
series  of  changes  occur  nearly  simultaneously,  one 
affecting  the  nucleus,  the  other  the  cytoplasm.  The 
chromatin,  which  is  usually,  as  in  Fig.  A,  in  form 
of  scattered  granules,  arranged  along  the  linin 


92 


GENESIS 
CUT    XT. 


B 


Mitosis  or  indirect  division  of  a  cell.     cy.  cytoplasm;  n, 

nucleus;  c,  centrosome;  nu,  nucleolus;  1, 'linin;  sk,  skein; 

a,   aster;    cs,    central    spindle;    ch,   chromosome;    u,   U- 

shaped  loops;  mf,  mantle  fibers;  cf,  connecting  fibrils. 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS    93 

network,  becomes  aggregated  together  in  certain 
definite  areas,  as  in  Fig.  B,  forming  usually  a 
convoluted  thread  or  skein,,  which  is  in  form  of  a 
long  filament  or  divided  up  into  a  series  of  seg- 
ments called  "chromosomes,"  as  in  Fig.  C.  The 
number  of  chromosomes  is  constant  for  each  spe- 
cies of  plant  or  animal.  Thus,  in  the  common 
mouse  these  chromosomes  are  in  the  number  of 
twenty-four,,  in  the  onion,  sixteen.,  in  the  sea- 
urchin,  eighteen,  etc.  The  number  is  always  an 
even  one.  By  this  time  the  nuclear  membrane 
has  disappeared  and  the  chromosomes  appear 
usually  as  a  collection  of  bands  lying  free  in  the 
cytoplasm,  as  in  Fig.  D. 

We  now  return  to  the  cell-body,  where,  at  the 
same  time,  another  series  of  changes  has  been 
gone  through  the  centrosome  and  the  cytoplasm. 
The  centrosome  assumes  an  ellipsoid  form,  con- 
stricts transversely  into  a  dumbbell-shaped  figure, 
as  in  Fig.  B,  and  divides  into  twro  daughter  cen- 
trosomes.  Around  each  of  them  is  gradually  de- 
veloped a  stellate  figure  composed  of  countless 
number  of  delicate  fibrils,  radiating  out  in  all  di- 
rections from  tbe  centrosome  as  a  centre.  This 
entire  constellation  is  called  "aster."  The  two 
asters  grow  in  size  progressively  as  the  two  centro- 
somes  move  apart  toward  the  poles  of  the  cell,  as 
in  Fig.  C.  Between  the  two  asters  a  spindle- 
shaped  system  of  delicate  fibrils  is  stretching 
from  one  aster  to  the  other  which  is  called 


94 


GENESIS 


"central-spindle"  as  in  Fig.  D.  The  two  asters 
together,  with  the  central  spindle,  are  called 
"amphiaster." 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS 


05 


At  this  point  the  centrosomes  or  the  asters  and 
the  chromosomes  begin  to  work  together.  A  sys- 
tem of  fibrils  grows  out  from  each  aster  which  at- 
tach themselves  to  the  individual  chromosomes. 


96  GENESIS 

The  latter,  now  bent  into  U-shaped  loops,  arrange 
themselves  in  a  circle  around  the  centre  of  the 
spindle  and  from  the  "equatorial  plate/'  as  in 
Fig.  E. 

The  chromosomes  are  now  longitudinally  split 
(Fig.  E)  and  the  halves  move  toward  the  poles 
as  if  drawn  by  the  mantle  fibers,  Fig.  F.  The 
loops  are  still  connected  with  each  other  by  the 
connecting  fibers  as  in  Figs.  G  and  H. 

The  new  U-shaped  loops  form  now  new  skeins 
at  each  pole  as  in  Fig.  I.  The  chromatin  gran- 
ules now  separate  along  the  thread  of  the  linin 
network,  and  the  new  nuclear  membranes  are 
formed  as  in  Fig.  K. 

Simultaneously  with  the  forming  of  the  two 
daughter  nuclei,  or  even  before  they  were  formed, 
the  cytoplasm  constricts  across  the  middle  of  the 
somewhat  elongated  cell.  The  constriction  in- 
creases until  a  complete  division  in  the  equatorial 
plane  of  the  spindle  has  taken  place.  The  result 
is  the  formation  of  two  separate  daughter  cells 
as  in  Fig.  L. 

These  complicated  phases  of  the  indirect  cell- 
division  will  be  grasped  by  very  few  children. 
Still,  the  description  of  the  mitosis  of  the  cell 
will  be  of  some  value  to  the  child  by  impressing 
upon  him  the  great  importance  which  the  creative 
power  of  the  universe  attributes  to  the  correct 
halving  of  the  nuclear  substance  of  the  cell. 

After  we  have  learned  to  know  the  mode  of  cell 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS     97 

division  we  will  pass  to  the  study  of  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  lower  classes  in  the  animal  kingdom. 

In  the  reproduction  of  unicellular  organisms  the 
animal  simply  diAddes  into  two,  the  division  of  the 
nucleus  preceding  that  of  the  cytoplasm  by  a  more 
or  less  karyokynetic  method. 

The  ordinary  protozoon  does  not  form  a  com- 
posite structure.  It  divides  and  multiplies,  but 
the  products  of  the  division  go  asunder  and  lead 
a  separate  existence;  hence  there  is  no  real  death 
in  these  animals.  In  the  metazoa,  or  many-celled 
animals,  only  a  few  reproductive  cells  escape,  be- 
fore death,  to  continue  to  live  in  the  offspring. 
But  the  entire  body,  or  the  rest  of  the  cells,  dies 
after  a  longer  or  shorter  period.  The  unicellular 
animals  do  not  possess  any  other  cells.  Hence  we 
may  rightly  speak  of  the  "immortality"  of  the 
protozoa. 

The  method  of  simple  binary  fission  or  split- 
ting, by  which  the  body  of  the  parent  becomes 
divided  into  two  equal  parts  into  halves,  is  the 
simplest  method  of  multiplication.  This  method 
is  made  use  of  in  the  amoebae  (see  Cut  2).  In 
this  kind  of  reproduction  there  is  no  parent  nor 
child,  the  children,  the  new  amoebae,  are  simply 
the  parent  cut  into  two. 

The  next  simple  generation  is  by  budding, 
which  is  the  breaking  off  of  a  part  smaller  than 
a  half  from  a  certain  individual.  The  budded  off 
part  has  the  capacity  of  growing  into  a  new  in- 


98  GENESIS 

dividual  like  the  parent.     This  mode  of  repro- 
duction is  found  in  the  hydra. 

Another  simple  mode  of  generation  is  that  of 
sporulation.  Here  the  interior  of  the  body  of  the 
individual  subdivides  into  more  than  two  parts. 
Sometimes  the  parts  number  many  hundreds  and 
are  called  spores. 

CUT    XII. 


Infusorium  reproducing  by  sporulation. 

These  three  methods  are  the  simplest  modes  of 
generation  and  are  exclusively  found  in  unicel- 
lular organisms.  Another  mode  of  reproduction 
obtains  occasionally  even  among  the  simplest  of 
organisms,  which  demands  for  its  carrying  out 
the  mutual  action  of  two  distinct  individuals  by 
the  exchange  of  nuclear  material  from  one  of  these 
individuals  to  the  other.  This  mode  represents 
the  first  step  in  the  scale  of  conjugation.  In  the 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS    99 

lowest  forms  of  unicellular  life,  as  the  schizo- 
mycetes  (yeast)  or  bacteria,  the  necessity  for  con- 
jugation does  not  appear  to  exist.  But  when  we 
go  a  step  farther,  in  the  class  of  unicellular  pro- 
tozoa, the  simple  mode  of  multiplication  con- 
tinues, in  most  forms,  only  for  a  certain  number 
of  generations.  Then  the  necessity  for  conjuga- 
tion, i.  e.,  for  a  temporary  or  permanent  fusion 
with  another  individual  sets  in.  If  this  conjuga- 
tion be  prevented,  the  animal  soon  degenerates 
and  dies.  Maupas,  for  instance,  has  shown  that, 
without  conjugation,  the  members  of  an  isolated 
family  of  infusoria  eventually  cease  to  feed  and 
divide  and  pass  through  the  stages  of  degenera- 
tion and  senility  to  extinction. 

The  simplest  terms  of  conjugation  are  found 
in  Chilodon,  a  minute  fresh-water  infusorium, 
which  multiplies  for  a  considerable  period  of  time 
by  transverse  division.  After  a  time,  however, 
the  physiological  necessity  for  conjugation  ensues. 
The  different  animals  having  placed  themselves 
side  by  side,  in  pairs,  and  partly  fused  together, 
the  nucleus  of  each  individual  divides  into  two 
portions,  one  of  which  passes  from  each  infu- 
sorium into  the  other  to  unite  with  the  half  of 
the  nucleus  remaining  stationary.  The  two  an- 
imals then  separate,  each  having  received  a  half 
of  the  nucleus  of  the  other.  Thereupon  a  period 
of  renewed  activity  for  each  sets  in,  manifested 
by  rapid  growth  and  multiplication  by  division 


100  GENESIS 

until  weakening  vital  activities  indicate  the 
periodically  recurring  necessity  for  conjugation. 

The  next  step  in  conjugation  is  where  after 
their  fusion  the  two  unicellular  animls  do  not  sep- 
arate any  more.  Dallinger  and  Dysdale  describe 
how  fission  of  the  monads  is  preceded  by  the  ab- 
sorption of  one  form  by  another.  One  monad  is 
fixed  on  the  sarcode  of  another,  and  the  substance 
of  the  lesser  or  the  lower  one  passes  into  the 
upper  one.  In  about  two  hours  the  merest  trace 
of  the  lower  one  was  left,  and  in  four  hours 
fission  and  multiplication  of  the  larger  one  has 
taken  place. 

From  these  two  modes  of  generation  it  is 
easily  seen  that  the  impelling  force  leading  to 
conjugation  is,  as  Rolph  puts  it,  simply  cell 
hunger. 

After  having  studied  the  lower  classes  of  the 
unicellular  protozoa  and  their  mode  of  generation 
we  may  go  over  to  the  study  of  the  loose  colonies 
formed  by  some  protozoa,  which  bridge  the  gulf 
between  them  and  the  metazoa. 

The  colonies  arise  when  the  individual  animals 
do  not  leave  each  other,  after  their  division,  to 
live  a  separate  life  but  remain  together.  After 
the  second  division  there  are  four  animals  or 
members:  after  the  third  division  eight,  then  six- 
teen, thirty-two,  etc.,  until  an  entire  colony  ha? 
risen.  (See  Cut  3.) 

Tn  the  simpler  colonial   protozoa  the  cells  are 


CHILDREN     TEN     TO     THIRTEEN     YEARS         101 

not  differentiated,  they  are  all  alike,  and  all  the 
cells  or  members  of  the  colony  take  part  in  re- 
production. In  the  next  higher  class  of  colonial 
protozoa  the  first  differentiation  of  the  cells  or 
members  of  the  colony  takes  place.  One  part  of 
the  cells  is  set  apart  to  continue  the  task  of  re- 
production, while  the  main  body  of  the  colony 
does  not  participate  any  longer  in  the  function 
of  generation.  Among  the  reproductive  cells  we 
find  two  kinds.  These  two  kinds  of  cells  conju- 
gate with  each  other.  The  conjugation  takes 
place  either  between  different  members  of  a  single 
colony  or  between  members  of  different  colonies 
of  the  same  species. 

These  conjugating  individuals  are  similar  in 
the  simpler  kinds  of  colonies.  In  the  higher 
kinds  the  conjugating  cells  are  readily  seen  to  be 
very  different  from  each  other.  One  kind  of  cells 
is  large,  spherical  and  inactive  and  is  for  that  rea- 
son called  egg-cells,  while  the  other  kind  is  small 
with  ovoid  head  and  tapering  tail  and  free  swim- 
ming, and  is  hence  called  the  sperm  cell.  (See 
Cut  16.) 

In  all  higher  classes  of  animals  the  differentia- 
tion  between   the   reproductive   cells,   which   per- 
form the  function  of  generation,  and  the  cells  o 
the  rest  of  the  body  is  very  pronounced. 

When  the  differentiation  between  the  reproduc- 
tive cells  into  two  kinds,  large,  inactive,  spherical 
egg-cells  and  small,  active,  elongated  or  tailed 


102  GENESIS 

sperm-cells  has  taken   place  they  are   called  sex 
cells. 

I    The   sex   cells   are  usually  situated   in   groups, 
/and  the  groups   are   called   sexual  glands.     The 
groups  of  sperm  cells  are  called  testicles,  and  those 
of  the  egg  cells  are  called  ovaries. 

In  the,  lower  classes  in  the  animal  kingdom  the 
male  and  female  glands  are  situated  at  different 
parts  of  the  same  animal,  or  near  each  other. 
Sometimes  the  same  gland  is  producing  both 
kinds  of  cells,  male  and  female.  In  the  herma- 
phroditic species  of  round  worms,  for  instance, 
it  is  found  that,  when  the  reproductive  organ  is 
fully  formed,  it  functions  first  as  a  testicle.  The 
germ-cells  at  the  anterior  end  of  the  ovary  begin 
to  divide  rapidly  and  become  small  spermatozoa 
which  are  stored  up  in  a  receptacle  of  the  uterus. 
Later  on  other  cells,  also  situated  at  the  anterior 
end  of  the  ovary,  begin  to  grow  larger,  store  up 
yolk  and  become  large  egg-cells.  They  then  enter 
the  uterus  and  become  fertilized  by  their  own 
spermatozoa.  This  mode  of  fertilization  is  the 
so-called  self-fertilization.  It  is  found  in  the 
slightly  complex  animals,  as  the  tape-worm  or 
the  leech,  where  one  and  the  same  individual  pro- 
duces both  egg-cells  and  sperm-cells.  In  colonial 
jelly-fishes  certain  members  of  the  colony  produce 
only  sperm-cells,  and  certain  other  members  pro- 
duce only  egg-cells. 

In    these   hermaphroditic    animals    the    sperm- 


CHILDREN    TEN    TO     THIRTEEN    YEARS         103 

cells  of  the  same  individual  may  fertilize  its  own 
egg-cells  or  ova,  as  in  the  feat-worm  (self-fertili- 
zation), while  in  the  earth-worm,  although  it  is 
also  hermaphroditic,  cross-fertilization  takes  place. 
Two  earth-worms  mutually  fertilize  each  other, 
the  sperm-cells  of  one  fertilize  the  ova  of  the 
other,  and  the  sperm-cells  of  the  latter  fertilize 
the  ova  of  the  former. 

When  we  rise  higher  in  the  scale  of  animal 
life  we  find  that  the  egg-cells  and  the  sperm- 
cells  are  almost  always  produced  by  different 
individuals.  Those  which  produce  egg-cells  or 
ova  are  called  female,  and  those  which  produce 
sperm-cells  or  spermatozoa  are  called  male  ani- 
mals. 

As  in  plants,  so  also  among  almost  all  the  com- 
plex animals,  the  formation  of  a  new  being  re-  | 
suits  from  the  conjugation  of  two  cellular  ele- 
ments. It  is  necessary  that  there  be  conjugation 
of  male  and  female  reproductive  cells,  in  order 
to  produce  a  new  individual.  In  this  way  the  or- 
igin of  the  organism,  or  the  first  single  cell  from 
which  the  new  individual  develops  is  composed  of 
parts  of  two  different  individuals,  and  a  difference 
between  the  offspring  and  the  parents  is  insured. 
The  intermixing  of  body-substance  from  two  dis- 
tinct individuals  and  the  development  therefrom 
of  the  new  individual  produce  variation.  Sexual 
individuals,  therefore,  i.  e.,  those  forms  that  re- 
produce themselves  by  eggs  and  sperm-cells,  in 


104  GENESIS 

contrast  to  reproduction  by  division,  budding  or 
spores,  produce  variation. 

All  animals,  which  propagate  by  a  fusion  of 
cellular  elements  of  two  different  individuals,  are 
sex  animals.  The  Chilodons,  mentioned  above, 
are,  therefore,  also  sexual  individuals,  since  two 
individuals  unite  to  exchange  parts  of  their  nu- 
clear elements  and  only  after  this  union  are  able 
to  continue  fission  and  reproduction. 

In  all  higher  animals  a  single  cell  is  formed  by 
the  fusion  of  two  germ  cells.  The  new  cell  is 
called  a  fertilized  egg  or  ovum.  Every  multi- 
cellular  organism  arises  by  a  process  of  division 
from  a.  single  fertilized  ovum.  The  descendants 
of  the  ovum  are  divided  into  two  unequal  parts. 
The  smaller  portion  is  set  aside  to  serve  the  prop- 
agation of  the  kind,  and  the  cells  are  called  re- 
productive cells.  The  greater  part  of  the  descend- 
;mts  are  differentiated  into  various  tissues  and  or- 
gans of  the  body  and  are  called  somatic  cells. 

Weismann  believes  that  in  each  individual,  pro- 
duced by  sexual  generation,  a  portion  of  germ- 
plasm,  derived  from  both  parents,  is  not  employed 
in  the  construction  of  the  nuclei  of  the  cells  and 
tissues  of  the  soma,  or  personal  structure  of  the 
individual,  but  is  set  aside,  without  change,  for 
the  formation  of  the  germ-cell  of  the  succeeding 
generation. 

The  development  of  a  single  cell  into  a  new 
animal  requires  a  certain  amount  of  food.  For 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS    10.") 

that  reason  there  is  found,  in  the  fertilized  ovum 
of  most  animals,,  a  greater  or  lesser  amount  of 
food  matter,  food  yolk,  gathered  about  the  germ 
cell  as  seen  in  the  hen's  egg. 

While  the  egg-cell,  the  ovum,  in  the  many- 
celled  animals  is  laden  with  a  large  amount  of 
food  yolk  and  is  made  up  of  nucleus  and  cyto- 
plasm, without  any  centrosomes,  the  germ-cell,  the 
spermatozoid,  is  a  minute  cell,  consisting  of 
nucleus  and  centrosome  with  a  small  amount  of 
cytoplasm,  which  is  modified  into  an  organ  of 
locomotion,  the  tail.  (See  Cut  16.) 

According  to  Boveri,  the  ovum,  or  the  female 
reproductive  cell,  has  all  the  organs  and  qualities 
necessary  for  the  development  of  the  foetus,  except 
that  its  centrosome.  which  starts  segmentation,  is 
in  a  state  of  inactivity,  while  the  spermatozoon,  or 
the  male  reproductive  cell,  possesses  the  active 
centrosome,  but  lacks  the  protoplasma  or  the  ma- 
terial by  means  of  which  this  organ  could  begin 
its  activity. 

Before  the  conjugation  of  the  ovum  with  the 
spermatozoon  takes  place,  most  ova  extrude  two 
polar  bodies  in  the  following  way.  Twice  a  divi- 
sion of  the  ovum  takes  place,  each  time  into  two 
quite  unequal  parts,  the  smaller,  called  polar 
bodies,  remain  near  the  periphery  of  the  egg  cell 
and  are  extruded  la  tor  on.  This  parthogenetic 
-<>.>•  mentation  must  be  considered  as  a  preparation 
I'm-  fertilization  because  the  two  polar  bodies  are 


106 


GENESIS 


thrown    off    before    the   egg   begins    its    develop- 
ment. 

CUT    XIII. 


Diagram  illustrating  the  fertilization  of  the  egg  after 
Boveri.  A,  egg  surrounded  by  spermatazoa,  one  pene- 
trating the  membranes,  the  cytoplasm  sending  at  "p" 
a  hill-like  processus  to  meet  the  spermatazoon ;  B,  the 
tail  of  the  spermatozoon  is  vanished,  the  sperm  nucleus 
preceded  by  its  centrosome  is  moving  towards  the  egg 
nucleus  which  shows  a  chromatin  reticulum;  C,  egg 
nucleus  and  sperm  nucleus  are  near  each  other,  between 
them  the  aster  fibrils;  D,  the  centrosome  has  divided, 
the  chromatin  has  taken  the  form  of  chromosomes;  K, 
first  cleavage  of  the  chromosomes,  the  splitted  chromo- 


CHILDREN    TEN    TO    THIRTEEN    YEARS        107 


somes  are  lying  on  the  equatorial  line;  F,  the  cleavage  is 
complete,  the  two-celled  stage;  s,  spermatazoa;  on, 
nucleus  of  the  ovum;  p,  hill-like  processus;  sn,  spermata- 
zoon-nucleus ;  sc,  spermatozoon  centrosome;  en,  chro- 
matin-net;  af,  aster  filbrils;  cho,  chromosome  of  the 
ovum;  chs,  chromosome  of  the  spermatozoon;  dc,  divided 
centrosome;  spc,  splitted  chromosomes,  the  lighter  that 
of  the  spermatozoon  and  the  darker  those  of  the  ovum; 
nn,  new  nuclei,  each  containing  four  chromosomes,  two 
from  the  ovum  and  two  from  the  spermatozoon. 


108  GENESIS 

The  process  of  fertilization  is  about  the  same 
in  most  many-celled  animals.  As  soon  as  the 
head  of  a  single  spermatozoon  enters  the  egg- 
cytoplasm,  a  new  membrane  is  formed  around  the 
egg  which  effectually  prevents  the  entrance  of  any 
other  spermatozoa.  The  head  and  the  middle 
piece  penetrate  now  into  the  egg,  the  tail  usually 
remaining  imbedded  in  the  membrane  whore  it 
soon  degenerates. 

A  few  moments  after  the  spermatozoon  has  en- 
tered the  egg.  a  system  of  radiation  appears 
around  the  middle  piece  which  develops  into  an 
aster,  surrounding  the  centrosoim'  of  the  sperm. 
(See  B.) 

The  sperm  nucleus  now  increases  in  si/e  and  its 
ehromatin  changes  into  a  reticulate  form.  Sperm 
aster  and  sperm  nucleus,  the  aster  preceding,  now 
move  toward  the  esrg  nucleus.  As  the  nuclei  ap- 
proach each  other  the  sperm  nucleus  increases  still 
more  in  size,  until  it  becomes  indistinguishable 
from  the  egg-nucleus,  both  being  almost  of  the 
same  size  now.  (See  C.) 

The  ehromatin  network  of  each  nucleus  now 
breaks  up  into  a  number  of  chromosomes  and  the 
nuclei  come  into  contact  and  fuse  together.  The 
centrosome,  together  with  its  aster,  now  divide 
into  two  parts,  and  the  two  daughter  centrosomes 
move  apart  to  the  opposite  poles  of  the  egg,  and 
the  typical  amphiaster  of  cell  division,  as  above 
described,  is  formed.  (See  D.) 


CHILDREN     TEN     TO     THIRTEEN     YEARS         109 

The  nuclear  membranes  now  disappear  and  the 
chromosomes  are  drawn  together  into  the  equa- 
torial plate  where  each  splits  longitudinally.  The 
halves  are  drawn  by  the  mantle-fibrils  toward  the 
opposite  poles  where  they  are  transformed  into 
two  daughter  nuclei.  (See  E.) 

In  the  meantime  the  cystoplasm  has  also  di- 
vided. The  result  are  two  new  cells.  This  process 
of  division  is  repeated  continuously  in  each  of  the 
resulting  generations  of  cells.  From  the  mass  of 
cells  tli us  formed  develops  the  new  organism. 

The  subsequent  development  after  fertilization 
is  divided  into  three  primitive  stages. 

The  first  stage  or  phenomenon  of  development 
is  the  simple  fission  of  the  egg-cell  into  halves, 
first  cleavage.  (See  Cut  3,  b.)  The  two  daughter- 
cells  divide  so  that  there  are  four  cells,  second 
cleavage.  (See  Cut  3,  c.)  Each  of  these  divides 
into  8,  16,  32,  64,  etc.,  until  by  continuous  cell- 
segmentation  a  mass  of  cells  is  created  which  is 
called  the  "Morula"  or  mulberry.  (See  Cut 
14,  b.) 

In  the  second  stage  the  cells  arrange  themselves 
so  as  to  form  a  hollow  sphere  or  ball  like  a  hollow 
rubber  ball  called  blastoderm  or  "Blastula." 

In  the  third  stage  the  blastoderm  cell  layer  be- 
gins to  bend  inward,  either  producing  a  small  de- 
pression or  a  grove.  By  gradually  bending  all 
together  half  a  sphere  of  two  layers,  like  a  col- 
lapsed rubber  ball,  ensues.  The  sunken-in  inner 


110  GENESIS 


portion  is  called  "endoblast"  or  "entoderm,"  and 
the  outer  unmodified  portion  is  called  "ectoderm" 
or  "ectoblast."  This  stage  is  called  the  "Gas- 
trula"  stage  (See  Cut  14,  d.) 


CUT    XIV. 


a,  cell;  b,  morula;  c,  blastula;  d,  gastrula ;  ec,  ectoblast; 
en,  endoblast. 


Some  many-celled  animals  issue  from  the  egg 
while  in  this  stage.  In  the  higher  animals  de- 
velopment goes  on  within  the  egg,  or  within  the 
body  of  the  mother,  until  the  embryo  becomes  a 
complex  body,  composed  of  many  various  tissues 
and  organs.  The  part  of  the  development,  passed 
within  the  egg  or  within  the  mother's  body,  is 
called  embryonic  life. 

The  embryonic  development  is,  from  the  be- 
ginning up  to  a  certain  point,  practically  alike  in 
all  the  many-celled  animals.  The  star-fish,  the 
beetle,  the  dove,  the  horse  and  man  are  all  alike 
in  their  beginnings,  the  body  of  each  is  composed 
of  a  single  cell,  and  very  much  alike  through  sev- 
eral stages. 

When  the  new  developed  animal  issues  from  an 


CHILDREN    TEN    TO    THIRTEEN    YEARS        111 

egg  which  has  been  deposited  outside  the  body  of 
the  mother  it  is  said  to  hatch.  Some  animals  do 
not  deposit  the  fertilized  egg-cell  outside  of  the. 
body,  but  allow  the  development  of  the  new  in- 1 
dividual  to  go  on  inside  the  body  of  the  mother 
for  a  longer  or  shorter  period.  When  such  an 
animal  issues  from  the  body  of  the  mother  it  is 
said  to  be  born. 

In  some  species  the  animal  hatched  out  from 
the  egg  is  quite  different  from  the  mother,  and 
only  after  a  certain  metamorphosis  reaches  the 
shape  and  mode  of  life  of  its  species.  The  meta- 
morphosis of  insects  is  familiar  to  all.  From  the 
egg  hatches  a  crawling,  worm-like  larva,  wingless, 
with  strong  jaws  and  other  mouth-parts,  fitting 
for  biting.  After  the  intervention  of  the  quiescent 
stage,  the  pupal  or  the  chrysalid  stage,  it  changes 
into  a  winged  butterfly,  with  different  eyes,  differ- 
ent antennae  and  different  mouth  parts. 

The  same  metamorphosis  is  found  among  some 
families  of  the  backboned  animals,  the  verte- 
brates, as  in  the  toad.  The  eggs  are  arranged 
in  long  strings  or  ribbons,  wound  around  the 
stems  of  submerged  plants  near  the  shores  of 
ponds.  From  each  egg  hatches  a  tiny,  wriggling 
tadpole,  swimming  easily  about,  by  means  of  its 
long  tail,  and  breathing  by  means  of  gills.  Later 
on  lungs  are  developed  inside  the  body,  the  tail  is 
growing  shorter,  fore  and  hind  legs  bud  out  and 
the  tadpole  is  changed  into  a  toad. 


112  GENESIS 

In  some  animals  fertilization  takes  place  out- 
side the  body  of  the  mother.  The  best  examples1 
of  outside  fertilization  are  the  fishes.  The  female 
fish  contains  the  roe,  which  is  a  mass  of  small 
eggs.  At  the  proper  time  the  female  lets  the  roe 
fall  on  the  ground  of  rivers  or  the  dark  bottom 
of  lakes,  etc.,  at  a  favorable  place  called  spawning 
bed,  secure  against  enemies.  The  male  fishes 
swim  over  the  spawn  and  pour  their  semen  or  milt 
over  it.  The  twro  kind  of  cells  attract  each  other, 
like  iron  and  magnet,  possibly  by  a  kind  of  erotic 
chemotropismus.  When  the  milt  has  reached  the 
spawn,  the  eggs  are  fertilized  and  develop  into 
new  fishes. 

In  the  next  higher  class,  in  birds,  fertilization 
is  internal,  but  the  development  is  external. 
There  is  an  ovary,  containing  a  large  number  of 
ova  or  eggs,  within  the  female  animal.  The  male 
animal  possesses  an  organ  that  serves  for  the  in- 
troduction of  the  semen  into  the  body  of  the  fe- 
male. The  fertilized  egg  is  laid  and  develops 
outside,  either  by  the  sunheat  or  hatched  by  the 
mother's  warmth. 

The  last  step  in  generation  is  reached  in  tho 
mammals.     Here  not  only  fertilization  is  accom-\ 
plished,  within  the  body  of  the  female,  but  alsof 
the  entire  development  of  the  fertilized  ovum  is 
carried  out  in  an  organ  called  uterus   or  womb, 
situated  inside  the  female  body.      In    this    way 
mammals  give  birth  to  living  mature  young. 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS   113 

For  this  purpose  several  organs  are  found 
within  the  female  mammal.  There  are  the  ova- 
ries, which  produce  the  egg-cells  or  ova,  then  the 
Fallopian  tubes,  adapted  as  a  pathway  for  the 
ovum  from  the  ovary  to  the  uterus.  The  latter  is 
an  organ  where  the  development  of  the  fertilized 
ovum  takes  place.  The  fourth  organ  is  the  vagina 


Female  genital   apparatus,   schema,      a,    Fallopian    tube: 

!»,    ovary;     c.    cervix    or    neck    of    the    \vomb;    <1,    round 

ligament;    e.  vagina;    f,  uterus. 

or  sheath,  which  serves  as  a  receptacle  for  the 
semen  and  as  a  path  for  the  young  animal  when 
it  leaves  the  mother's  body. 

At  this  place,  before  we  begin  to  study  ovula- 
tion  in  the  female  animal,  we  could  explain  in  a 
few  words -the  physiology  of  the  spermatozoon  of 
the  male  animal. 

The  spermatozoon  is  divided  into  three  parts, 


114 


GENESIS 


the  head  which  is  the  modified  nucleus  of  the 
male  reproductive  cell,  the  intermediate  segment, 
which  is  the  cytoplasm  of  the  cell,  and  the  tail, 


CUT    XVI. 


Spermatozoon,    a,  head;  b,  intermediate  segment;  c,  tail. 

which  is  a  veritable  vibrating  cilium,  as  found  in 
all  ciliated  epithelial  cells.  This  tail  is  able  to 
advance  by  its  active  movements  about  two  to 
three  millimeters  in  a  minute. 


CHILDREN    TEN    TO    THIRTEEN    YEARS        115 


The  spermatozoa  are  secreted  by  the  testicles. 
From    these    glands    they     travel     through     the 


Male  genital  apparatus,   front   view  Schema,     a,  afferent 

canal;  h.  1r>lirl»>:  c.  <l<>lVorent  canal;  d,  seminal  vesicles: 

<•,    prostatic    <rlan<l;    f,    urethra. 


116 


GENESIS 


afferent  canal,  called  "Epidydimis,"  then  through 
the  deferent  canal  to  the  seminal  vesicles,  which 
serve  as  reservoirs  to  keep  the  sperm  till  the  time 
of  ejaculation. 

Ejaculation  normally  takes  place  within  the 
vagina.  As  soon  as  the  male  organ  is  introduced 
into  the  vagina  an  abundant  glandular  secretion 
of  the  urethral  glands  serves  to  lubricate  the  wall 
of  the  male  urethra  for  the  journey  of  the  sperm. 
Thereupon  peristaltic  contractions  of  the  seminal 
vesicles  ensue  by  which  the  contents  of  the  ves- 
icles are  pressed  into  the  prostatic  portion  of  the 

CUT   XVIII. 


dJ A 


Male  genital  apparatus,  side  view,  b,  bladder;  p,  al, 
ml,  the  three  lobes  of  the  prostatic  gland;  u,  ureter; 
sv,  seminal  vesicle;  vd,  vas  deferens;  ed,  ejaculatory 
duct;  ml,  middle  lobe;  al,  anterior  lobe.  After  Zucker- 
kandel  and  Testut. 


CHILDREN    TEN    TO     THIRTEEN    YEARS        117 

urethra.  The  latter  is  firmly  closed  towards  the 
bladder  by  the  vesical  sphincter  and  towards  the 
urethra.,  or  the  front,  by  the  urethral  sphincter 
of  the  membranous  portion.  Excited  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  sperm,  the  prostatic  portion  of  the 
urethra  contracts  and  presses  the  sperm  in  the 
direction  of  the  urethra,,  overcoming  the  weaker 
urethral  sphincter,  while  the  stronger  vesical 
sphincter  remains  tightly  closed.  At  each  con- 
traction a  portion  of  the  sperm  is  thrown  outside 
and  deposited  at  the  orifice  of  the  uterus.  Ac- 
cording to  Sutkowsky  every  ejaculation  contains 
about  fifty  millions  of  spermatozoa. 

After  we  have  learned  the  mechanism  of  ejacu- 
lation, we  will  return  to  the  female  ovum  and 
study  its  physiology.  The  ovum,  surrounded  by 
the  follicular  epithelium,  is  called  Graafian  fol- 
licle. The  ripe  Graafian  follicle  is  usually  situ- 
ated near  the  periphery  of  the  ovary.  The  Graa- 
fian follicle  is  bubble-shaped  and  is  surrounded  by 
a  fibrous  sheath  called  the  "Theca  folliculi."  The 
cavity  contains  a  light  yellow  fluid  called  "Liquor 
folliculi."  The  interior  of  the  cavity  is  coated 
with  several  layers  of  follicular  epithelia  called 
the  "Membrana  granulosa."  The  follicular  epi- 
thelia form  at  one  point  a  disc  of  cells  called  the 
"Discus  oophorus,"  which  includes  in  its  midst 
the  ovum. 

About  once  a  month  a  general  congestion  of 
the  entire  genital  system  takes  place,  especially  in 


118 


GENESIS 


the   ovary,  thus  facilitating  the  ripening  of  the 
ovum.     This   congestion   also   causes   an   effusion 


CUT   XIX. 


Graafian  follicle;  vg,  vesicula  germinativa ;  mg,  macula 
germinativa:  o,  ovum,  zp,  zona  pellucida;  cr,  corona 
radiata;  1,  liquor  in  a  coagulated  state;  a,  antrum  fol- 
liculi;  t,  theca  folliculi  (found  by  the  author  in  a 
woman  operated  for  cancer  of  the  uterus). 


CHILDREN  TEN  TO  THIRTEEN  YEARS    119 

of  scrum  and  blood  into  the  Graafian  follicle  and 
the  rupture  of  the  same.  In  this  way  the  ovum 
is  set  free  and  is  seized  by  the  fimbriae  of  the 
Fallopian  tube.  The  ovum  now  begins  its  jour- 
ney towards  the  uterus.  During  its  descent,  as 
mentioned  above,  it  extrudes  the  so-called  two 
polar  bodies  and  becomes  ripe  for  fertilization. 

The  mechanism  of  impregnation  in  mammals 
is  as  follows :  When  the  sperm  has  been  depos- 
ited in  the  vagina,  near  the  uterine  orifice,  the 
spermatozoa  begin  to  move  towards  the  interior 
of  the  uterus.  The  celerity  of  their  motion  is, 
according  to  Henle,  Kramer,,  Hensen  and  Lott, 
from  1,2  to  3,6  millimeters  a  minute.  Hence  they 
finish  their  way,  from  the  vagina  through  the 
uterus  and  tubes,  within  one  to  two  hours. 

According  to  Bisclioif  and  His,  the  impregna- 
tion takes  place  in  the  distal  end  of  the  tube. 
After  impregnation  the  ovum  continues  its  wan- 
dering, by  the  current  of  the  ciliated  epithelia  of 
the  tube,  towards  the  uterus.  The  ovum  needs, 
according  to  Hensen,  from  three  to  five  days,  ac- 
cording to  Bischoff  eight  days,  to  traverse  this 
way  in  the  woman.  It  could  not  last  any  longer, 
says  v.  Winckel,  because  the  uterine  end  of  the 
tube,  in  the  woman,  has  a  diameter  of  only  two 
to  three  millimeters,  while  the  diameter  of  the 
ovum,  in  the  second  week  of  pregnancy,  is  3  to 
6  mm. 

When  the  impregnated  ovum  has  reached  the 


120  GENESIS 

cavity  of  the  uterus  it  penetrates  through  the 
epithelium  into  the  submucous  fibrous  tissue  of 
the  uterus,  where  it  completes  its  development 
and  then  leaves  the  mother's  organism,  i.  e.,  it  is 
born. 

After  the  child  has  been  introduced,  step  by 
step,  into  the  physiology  of  propagation  of  the 
animal,  a  hint  is  enough  to  apply  the  same  laws 
to  man.  In  this  way  the  child  acquires,  in  a 
harmless  way,  the  knowledge  of  the  propagation 
of  the  human  species,  and  a  more  natural  concep- 
tion of  his  own  sexuality. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Lessons  for  Children  Thirteen  to  Sixteen  Years 
of  Age. 

§  a,  Menstruation;    §  b,  Pollution;    £  c,  Masturbation. 

WHEN  the  child  has  reached  the  age  of  about 
thirteen  years,  the  first  signs  of  the  onset 
of  sexual  maturity  will  soon  appear,  i.  e.,  noc- 
nurnal  pollutions  in  the  male  and  menstruation 
in  the  female.  If  the  children  are  not  previously 
enlightened  these  occurrences  will  frighten  them 
and  drive  them  to  seek  advice  from  their  com- 
panions, who  very  often  will  initiate  the  girl  into 
the  mysteries  of  masturbation,  and  the  boy  even 
into  those  of  prostitution.  Enlightenment  at  this 
period  is,  therefore,  a  condition  sine  qua  non. 
Especially  must  the  girl's  attention  be  called  to 
the  phenomenon  of  menstruation,  soon  to  be  set 
in.  The  young  girl  is  usually  surprised  by  it  as 
something  incomprehensible,  and  is  greatly  fright- 
ened. She  needs  special  attention,  since  the  sex 
function  tasks  physiologically  the  woman  in  an 
extraordinary  measure. 

We  will,  therefore,  at  this  period,  explain  to 
her  the  phenomenon  of  menstruation.  As  seen 
above,  several  changes  take  place  before  impregna- 


122  GENESIS 

tion  can  be  accomplished.  A  general  congestion 
of  the  genital  organs  is  necessary  to  enable  the 
ovum  to  leave  the  Graafian  follicle.  This  general 
congestion  is  also  the  cause  of  considerable 
changes  in  the  uterus,  especially  in  its  lining,  the 
"endometrium."  The  result  of  these  changes  is 
the  discharge,  which  is  called  menstruation. 

The  mucous  membrane,  or  lining,  swells  from 
one  to  three  or  six  millimeters  in  thickness  and 
is  soft  and  tumefied.  It  is  injected  in  spots  or 
uniformly  reddened.  The  openings  of  the  glands 
are  enlarged  and  a  whitish  opaque  mucus  is  poured 
out.  The  cells  of  the  glands  are  enlarged,  and 
there  is  a  multiplication  of  the  round  cells  of  tlio 
connective  tissue  stroma.  The  cells  are  cloudy 
and  filled  with  fat  granules.  This  fatty  degenera- 
tion involves  the  gland  cells,  the  cells  of  the  in- 
terglandular  tissue  of  the  blood  vessels,  which  are 
distended  with  blood,  and  the  epithelium  of  the 
surface.  But  the  degeneration  is  very  superficial. 
These  alterations  develop  independently  of  the 
haemorrhage.  The  swelling  begins  a  long  time  be- 
fore the  period  and  reaches  its  maximum  only  at 
this  time. 

These  changes  seem  to  be  made  for  the  purpose 
of  facilitating  the  grafting  of  the  fertilized  egg- 
cell.  A  wound  has  to  be  sot  in  the  lining  of  the 
womb  for  that  end.  Just  as  the  gardener  makes 
a  slit  for  ingrafting-  the  young  shoot,  nature  ac- 
complishes the  ingrafting  of  the  young  animal 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN    TO    SIXTEEN    YEARS      123 

by  the  changes  preceding  menstruation.  Men- 
struation is,  what  Pfliiger  calls,  the  inoculation 
of  nature  for  the  attachment  of  the  fertilized  egg 
to  the  maternal  organism. 

Menstruation  is,  as  Goff  puts  it,  a  frustrated 
attempt  on  the  part  of  nature  to  reproduce  an 
individual  of  the  species.  An  ovum  is  thrown 
out  from  the  ovary  and.  through  the  lashing 
movements  of  the  cilia  of .  the  epithelia  of  the 
Fallopian  tube,  gradually  finds  its  way  toward 
the  uterus ;  and  nature  prepares  for  the  reception. 
The  blood  supply  to  these  parts  is  increased,  the 
endometrium,  which  is  the  soil  in  which  the  ovum 
is  to  be  implanted,  becomes  turgid,  soft  and 
velvety,  its  epithelial  cells  swell  and  multiply,  and 
every  preparation  is  made  to  nourish  the  incom- 
ing ovum. 

If  the  ovum  has  become  impregnated  it  is  ready 
to  respond  to  these  preparations.  If  it  does  not 
become  impregnated  it  is  cast  out,  and  the  prepa- 
rations are  also  eliminated.  The  exuberant  epi- 
thelial cells  are  exfoliated,  the  delicate  capillaries, 
already  engorged  with  their  vitalizing  blood,  sweat 
drops  of  blood  by  diapedesis  and  burst  and  dis- 
charge their  contents.  The  congested  and  en- 
gorged glands  secrete  and  excrete  profusely.  This 
mingled  mass  of  epithelial  cells,  blood  and  mucus 
comes  away  in  the  form  of  menstrual  blood. 

From  the  sympathetic  nerve  ganglia  in  the 
pelvis  and  abdomen  springs  the  impulse  for  the 


124  GENESIS 

reproduction  of  the  species,  and  the  uterus  is  pre- 
pared for  the  task.  If  the  ovum  failed  to  be  fer- 
tilized, a  retrograde  metamorphosis  ensues.  Men- 
struation,, therefore,  is  a  retrograde  process  in  con- 
sequence of  the  failure  to  conceive. 

The  menstrual  discharge  is,  therefore,  only  an 
evidence  of  the  retrograde  physiological  process 
that  is  going  on  in  the  organ  within.  The  flow 
is,  like  the  shedding  of  the  leaves  by  a  tree,  the 
getting  rid  of  some  material  whose  function  has 
been  frustrated  and  for  which  the  economy  has 
no  use  any  more. 

Ovulation  and  menstruation  are  thus  coincident 
and  stand  in  the  relation  to  each  other  as  cause 
and  effect.  But  the  preparation  of  which  men- 
struation is  the  result  is  not  synchronous  with 
ovulation.  The  menstrual  flow  is,  as  Williams 
puts  it.  only  tho  terminal  change  of  the  cycle  of 
changes  which  begins  at  tho  cessation  of  one 
menstruation,  passes  through  the  development 
phases  of  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  womb 
and  ends  with  the  cessation  of  the  flow  next  fol- 
1  owing. 

In  this  way  there  is  no  period  of  uterine  rest, 
the  organ  is  ever  undergoing  those  changes  which 
either  make  it  a  fit  receptacle  for  the  'ovum,  when 
impregnated,  or  which  prepare  it  to  carry  off  the 
ovum  when  impregnation  has  failed. 

The  phenomenon  of  menstruation  in  its  broad 
and  general  factors,  being  a  direct  and  logical 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN   TO    SIXTEEN   YEARS     125 

sequence  of  ovulation  in  which  pregnancy  has  not 
occurred,  it  follows  that  menstruation  must  occur 
in  all  such  animals  in  which  the  fertilized  egg  is 
fully  developed  to  complete  maturity  within  the 
interior  of  the  mother.  This  is  indeed  what  hap- 
pens. All  animals  with  so  intimate  an  attach- 
ment of  the  foetal  and  maternal  organisms  that 
the  foetal  placenta  can  not  be  detached  from  the 
mother  without  a  haemorrhage  show  the  phe- 
nomenon of  menstruation. 

Menstruation  was  formerly  regarded  as  the  ex- 
clusive prerogative  of  woman,  but  we  know  now 
that  woman  shares  the  privilege  with  many  an- 
imals. All  warm-blooded  animals  that  stand  or 
walk  erect,  without  exception,  menstruate.  The 
appearance  of  the  discharge  is  due  simply  to  pos- 
ture. The  process  is  going  on  in  all  quadrupeds 
as  the  sheep,  the  cow,  the  dog,  the  cat,  etc.,  but 
on  account  of  the  position  of  the  uterus — in 
quadrupeds  the  fundus  of  the  womb  is  situated 
lower  than  the  neck — the  blood  is  usually  retained 
in  that  organ,  reabsorbed  through  the  lymphatics 
into  the  blood  and  consumed  in  the  vital  process 
or  eliminated  through  excretory  glands. 

In  some  animals  the  discharge  consists  of 
mucus.  It  is  only  a  play  of  nature,  that  in  one 
species  the  congestion  of  the  genitals  manifests 
itself  by  a  sweating  of  viscous  mucus,  in  the  other 
by  a  flow  of  blood. 

Even  the  lower  animals  shed  the  same  degene- 


126  GENESIS 

rated  material.  They  menstruate  through  the 
lymphatics. 

After  the  boy  and  girl  have  both  learned  the 
laws  of  menstruation  in  animals,  the  girl  needs  a 
separate  lesson,  by  her  mother  or  teacher,  to  be 
enlightened  on  the  mental  phenomena,  during 
puberty,  in  the  maturing  woman. 

At  the  time  of  puberty  two  impulses  appear  in 
both  sexes,  one  is  the  impulse  of  "detumescence'; 
(from  the  Latin  word  "detumescere"  to  shrink) 
which  is  more  pronounced  in  the  male.  This  im- 
pulse of  detumescence  impels  the  individual  to 
seek  a  discharge  of  the  physiological  congestion 
and  a  spasmodic  relief  from  the  nervous  tension. 
This  impulse  is  manifested  in  the  desire  to  relieve 
the  individual  of  a  certain  sense  of  oppression. 
It  is  similar  to  the  desire  for  micturition  and 
defecation  when  the  bladder  or  rectum  are  filled 
respectively. 

The  second  impulse  is  the  impulse  of  "con- 
tract ation7'  (from  the  Latin  wrord  "contractare"  to 
touch)  and  is  more  pronounced  in  the  female. 
This  impulse  moves  one  individual  to  approach 
the  individual  of  the  opposite  sex,  to  touch  it  and 
caress  it.  The  impulse  also  manifests  itself  in  the 
inclination  to  converse  with,  to  write  to,  or  to 
think  of  the  other  person,  acts  which  represent  a 
quasi  psychic  contact. 

The  impulse  of  contractation,  founded  upon 
Pfeiffer's  erotic  chemotropismus  is  found  already 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN    TO    SIXTEEN    YEARS      127 

in  hermaphrodites,  as  leeches,  when  two  individ- 
uals unite  for  copulation,  although  each  one  pos- 
sesses both  male  and  female  sexual  glands. 

This  impulse  of  contractation  together  with  the 
impulse  of  detumescence  constitute,  according  to 
Moll,  the  sexual  instinct.  In  animals  there  is  co- 
incidence between  the  bursting  of  the  Graafian 
follicle  and  the  appearance  of  the  sexual  instinct, 
both  being  in  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  In 
some  animals  the  expulsion  of  the  ova  and  the 
detumescence  is  one  and  the  same  thing. 

In  the  human  species  this  is  different.  Detu- 
mescence does  not  coincide  with  ovulation.  Still, 
as  seen  above,  enough  changes  are  going  on  at  this 
catamenial  period  to  make  it  an  interesting  study  •. 
for  the  scientist.  Nature  has  reserved  this  cata- 
menial week  for  the  process  of  ovulation  and  for 
the  development  and  perfection  of  the  reproduc- 
tive system.  All  the  pelvic  organs  are  in  a  condi- 
tion of  increased  nervous  irritability  and  in  a 
natural  healthy  state  of  congestion.  The  breasts 
also  participate  in  the  genital  congestion,  they 
become  extended  and  more  sensitive. 

With  the  irritability  of  the  genital  nerves  the 
entire  nervous  system  becomes  impressionate. 
Especially  at  puberty,  when  the  first  menstruations 
set  in,  the  nervous  susceptibility  is  increased  to  the 
highest  degree.  The  child  enters  the  period  of 
storm  and  stress.  During  puberty,  says  Kiernan, 
there  is  normally  a  struggle  between  the  cerebral 


128  GENESIS 

and  the  reproductive  systems  which  tends  to  ob- 
trude subconscious  states  upon  consciousness. 
Quite  a  few  of  the  young  boys  and  girls  harbor  in 
their  hearts  the  so-called  "Weltschmerz,"  which 
could  be  defined  as  the  subconscious  conviction  of 
the  emptiness  and  worthlessness  of  existence. 

At  the  time  of  the  onset  of  the  catamenial 
period  headaches  are  very  frequent.  There  is 
restlessness,  excitability,  irritability  of  temper 
and  a  general  hysterical  condition.  The  girl  is 
carried  away  more  easily  and  often  cries  without 
cause.  The  appetite  is  often  diminished  and  ca- 
pricious at  this  period,  just  the  same  as  is  often 
observed  at  the  beginning  of  pregnancy.  If  the 
girl  feels  sick  and  remains  in  a  recumbent  posi- 
tion, the  blood  accumulates  in  the  vagina  and 
coagulates  there  before  it  leaves  the  system. 
These  coagula  frighten  the  young  girl. 

Hence  the  functions  of  menstruation  should  be 
very  carefully  and  minutely  explained  to  the  girl 
and  the  responsibility  of  the  womanly  organism 
impressed  upon  her  mind  as  soon  as  the  mental 
symptoms  herald  the  approaching  change  from 
child  to  maidenhood.  Indefinable  yearnings  and 
moods,  wishes  and  fears  assume  a  certain  domina- 
tion over  the  growing  child.  Sweet  inexpressible 
emotions  disturb  the  thoughts  and  actions  of  the 
awakening  consciousness.  Mysterious  sensations 
and  impulses  fill  the  heart  of  the  ripening  indi- 
vidual. The  bodings  of  desires  and  cravings  take 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN    TO    SIXTEEN   YEARS      129 

possession  of  the  individual's  thoughts  and  fancy. 
When  these  symptoms  appear  it  is  time  for  parents 
and  teachers  to  assist  the  girl  with  their  advice. 


The  boy  needs  a  different  lesson  at  this  period. 
He  has  to  be  told  that,  at  the  time  of  maturity, 
the  testicles  begin  to  produce  or  secrete  sperma- 
tozoa which  fill  the  seminal  vesicles  about  once  or 
twice  a  month.  Here  the  sperm  is,  as  a  rule,  re- 
absorbed  when  no  external  pressure,  such  as  from 
the  filled  bladder  or  rectum,  is  exerted  upon  the 
vesicles.  In  the  daytime  the  bladder  and  rectum 
are  regularly  emptied,  and  the  pressure  from  this 
side  is  at  a  minimum. 

During  the  secretion  of  the  spermatozoa  the 
nerve  appartus  of  the  genital  system  is  charged 
with  vital  energy.  When  the  tension  becomes  very 
high,  which  coincides  with  the  filling  of  the  ves- 
icles with  sperma,  the  nervous  tension  and  the 
physical  pressure  are  both  eager  to  discharge,  re- 
spectively to  evacuate.  When  the  bladder  and 
rectum  are  filled  during  the  night  their  pressure 
upon  the  seminal  vesicles  becomes  so  great  that 
the  latter  evacute  and  thus  cause  an  ejaculation, 
and  a  change  both  in  blood  and  nerve-supply  is 
the  result.  This  relief  from  the  physiological 
congestion  and  nervous  tension  gives  a  feeling  of 
satisfaction  and  pleasure.  The  boy  is  awakened 
and  is  conscious  of  what  has  happened. 


130  GENESIS 

In  the  girl  a  certain  kind  of  nocturnal  ejacula- 
tion also  takes  place,  manifested  by  an  abundant 
discharge  from  the  Bartholinian  glands  and  the 
expulsion  of  Kristeller's  slimy  ;plug  from  the 
cervix.  These  phenomena,  during  sleep,  are 
usually  of  a  very  vague  kind  in  young  girls  and  are 
seldom  impressed  upon  their  consciousness.  The 
real  pollution  that  awakens  the  sleeper  and  leaves 
its  traces  in  the  individual's  consciousness  occurs 
usually  only  in  boys,  and  in  the  female  sex  only 
later  in  life. 

Boys,  therefore,  must  be  taught  that  these  pollu- 
tions, if  they  happen  only  once  or  twice  a  month, 
are  entirely  normal  and  have  absolutely  no  patho- 
logical significance  whatsoever.  The  appearance 
of  nocturnal  losses  is  merely  a  proof  that  the  boy 
is  approaching  manhood.  Hence  there  is  no  ne- 
cessity for  the  boy  to  resort  to  prostitution  to  get 
rid  of  the  nocturnal  pollutions,  or  the  so-called 
wet  dreams,  as  many  a  boy  has  done,  sometimes 
even  upon  the  advice  of  his  parent  or  medical 
adviser. 


When  the  child  has  passed  the  period  of  pub- 
escence it  has  to  be  warned  aginst  the  early  grati- 
fication of  the  impulse  of  sex.  The  child  has 
learned  in  the  previous  lessons  that  the  instinct 
of  sex  is  composed  of  two  different  impulses,  the 
impulse  of  contractation,  i.  e.,  the  impulse  to  touch 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN    TO    SIXTEEN    YEARS      131 

an  individual  of  the  opposite  sex,  to  think  of  it, 
to  write  to  it,  or  to  stand  in  any  other  communi- 
cation with  it,  and  the  impulse  of  detumescence, 
i.  e.,  the  impulse  to  discharge  or  to  cause  a  relaxa- 
tion of  the  nervous  tension.  The  child  must  now 
be  especially  warned  against  yielding  to  the  latter 
impulse,  especially  against  abuse  in  form  of  mas- 
turbation. 

There  are  three  periods  in  the  child's  life  when 
the  danger  of  masturbation  is  especially  immi- 
nent. There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  period  of 
infancy  and  early  age  when  the  child  is  usually 
seduced  to  masturbation  either  by  vicious  servants 
or  ignorant  mothers,  uncleanliness  or  improper 
diet.  At  this  time  careful  watching  of  servants, 
cleanliness  of  the  genitals,  details  of  diet,  as  light 
suppers,  non-spicy  food,  non-alcoholic  beverages, 
the  right  way  of  sleeping,  as  hard  mattresses,  the 
proper  dressing,  as  light  trousers,  etc.,  will  pre- 
vent early  self-abuse. 

The  second  dangerous  period  sets  in  at  the  be- 
ginning of  school  life.  Self-abuse  is  widely  spread 
in  schools.  !NV  institution  is  free  from  it.  In 
nearly  every  school  there  is  at  least  one  lecherous 
boy  who  is  apt  to  be  peculiarly  fascinating  to  his 
fellows  and  who  will  promulgate  the  habit.  In 
some  schools  the  evil  reaches  a  wide  extension. 
The  tradition  of  the  school  and  the  material  of 
the  pupils  is  of  great  influence.  Particularly 
dangerous,  as  hatcheries  and  divulgers  of  the  evil. 


132  GENESIS 

are  those  institutions  in  which  numerous  pupils 
are  present  who  have  passed  the  normal  age  by 
several  years.  They  come,  as  a  rule,  from  the 
country  to  enter  the  advanced  classes. 

At  this  time  any  moral  indignation  or  long- 
winded  sermons,  or,  what  is  still  worse,  punish- 
ment will  be  of  no  avail  and  will  have  just  the 
opposite  effect.  Long  talks  or  repeated  turnings 
to  the  same  subject  will  be  of  great  harm.  Here 
only  a  deeply  implanted  disgust  of  the  child 
against  children  with  nasty  habits  will  prevent  the 
child's  seduction  by  such  masturbators.  This  feel- 
ing can  not  be  implanted  in  a  day.  One  lesson 
will  not  accomplish  anything.  The  parent  must 
interpose  a  remark  at  every  opportune  moment 
during  all  the  years  between  infancy  and  school 
days. 

The  third  period,  favorable  for  acquiring  the 
habit  of  masturbation,  is  the  time  of  puberty. 
When  the  genital  centers  are  fully  developed  the 
individual  gets  a  conscious  realization  of  its  sex- 
ual power  and  the  psychological  reactions  of  an- 
imal passion  manifest  themselves  in  the  desireTtb 
cause  a  relaxation  and  a  discharge  of  the  nervous 
tension  and  the  physical  genital  congestion. 
Since  the  opportunity  for  a  natural  discharge  is 
connected  with  great  difficulties,  especially  for  the 
girl,  there  is  danger  that  the  child  will  resort  to 
masturbation,  to  be  relieved  from  the  nervous 
tension  and  the  material  congestion. 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN    TO    SIXTEEN    YEARS      133 

Here  a  casual  warning  will  not  suffice;  system- 
atic action  is  now  necessary.  In  the  first  place, 
the  causes  of  the  material  congestion  must  be  re- 
moved as  much  as  possible.  These  are  remaining 
too  long  in  a  sitting  position.  Long  hours  of  sit- 
ting in  the  school  room,  for  instance,  are  likely  to 
provoke  a  certain  degree  of  passive  congestion  of 
the  genital  organs.  Then  there  is  the  way  of  sit- 
ting which  is  especially  apt  to  cause  congestion, 
e.  g.,  sitting  with  crossed  legs  or  riding  on  chairs, 
the  movements  at  the  sewing  machine,  climbing 
with  the  legs  on  poles.  Other  causes  of  conges- 
tion are  retention  of  urine  and  stool,  erotic  liter- 
ature, obscene  pictures  and  vulgar  plays. 

When  the  child  has  already  acquired  the  habit, 
we  will  have  to  be  very  careful  not  to  leave  him 
any  opportunity  to  exercise  the  same.  The  child 
must  never  be  allowed  to  remain  abed  when  not 
asleep.  He  must  never  sleep  on  his  back.  He 
should  never  be  allowed  to  remain  any  longer 
than  necessary  in  the  toilet  or  bathroom.  Under 
no  circumstances  should  two  children,  even  of 
the  same  sex,  be  allowed  to  sleep  in  the  same 
bed  or  enter  a  toilet  together.  Sometimes  the 
children  are  exercising  the  habit  in  the  presence 
of  their  elders,  and  the  latter  are  not  able  to 
interpret  the  suspicious  movements.  We  will, 
therefore,  have  to  learn  to  recognize,  by  his  move- 
ments, what  the  child  is  doing,  and  interrupt  him 
in  his  favorite  exercise.  For  instance,  when  near 


134  GENESIS 

the  orgasm  the  movements  change  their  character 
and  rhythm,  the  eyes  become  sparkling,  the  face 
shows  an  excited  lascivious  expression  and  aspi- 
ration becomes  more  rapid. 

Teachers  especially  should  be  alive  to  the  ex- 
cessive danger  of  platonic  attachments  among  their 
pupils.  The  sentimental  fancy  taken  by  an  elder 
boy  to  a  younger  boy  in  boys'  schools,  or  by  an 
older  girl  to  a  younger  girl  in  girls'  schools,  be- 
tween whom,  in  the  regular  course  of  the  school, 
there  ought  to  be  very  little  natural  companion- 
ship, is  always  suspicious.  The  teacher  or  guar- 
dian must  know  that  such  attachments,  which  ap- 
pear so  touching  and  romantic,  have  a  most  dan- 
gerous resemblance  to  abnormal  passion. 

Besides  these  precautions  we  will  have  repeat- 
edly to  warn  the  boy  and  girl  against  the  dangers 
of  self-abuse.  They  are  now  old  enough  to  un- 
derstand. Although  the  harmfulness  of  mastur- 
bation has  been  greatly  exaggerated,  still  it  is 
more  injurious  than  the  natural  act.  In  the  first 
place  because  masturbation  is  practiced  at  a  time 
when  the  natural  act  is  as  yet  not  thought  of,  and 
Hie  exercise  of  the  just  developed  organs  of  the 
mere  chijd  is  highly  detrimental  to  the  individual. 
In  the  second  place  the  opportunity  to  masturba- 
tion is  unlimited  and,  therefore,  the  vice  is  immod- 
erately indulged  in.  Furthermore,  the  mastur- 
bator  uses  strong  psychical  and  physical  stimu- 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN   TO    SIXTEEN   YEARS      135 

lants,  and  the  injury  to  health  is  in  proportion  to 
the  height  of  excitement. 

Especially  injurious  to  the  brain  is  mental  mas- 
turbation,, which  consists  in  the  filling  of  the 
phantasy  with  obscene  lascivious  pictures.  The 
voluptuous  day-dreamers,  not  needing  any  mate- 
rial manipulations,  may  masturbate  while  con- 
versing with  their  friends,  and  on  the  most  solemn 
occasions,  as  when  listening  to  a  sermon,  etc.  In 
some  patients  this  habit  becomes  so  rooted  that  it 
is  impossible  for  them  to  free  their  thoughts  from 
fancies  and  pictures  of  lustful  circumstances  when 
they  are  alone. 

The  sequelae  of  immoderate  masturbation  are 
often  quite  disastrous.  There  is.  in  the  first  place, 
general  neurasthenia,  with  all  its  accompanying 
symptoms,  as  photopsias,  glistening  and  dazzling 
before  the  eyes,  photophobias,  dry  conjunctivitis, 
particularly  found  among  masturbating  girls  and 
old  maids,  and  functional  sexual  disturbances,  as 
diurnal  pollutions  and  spermatorrhoea.  Other 
symptoms  are  indolence,  lack  of  energy,  shyness 
in  demeanor,  want  of  self-reliance,  disinclenation 
to  study,  incapacity  for  serious  work,  shortness  of 
memory,  absentmindedness,  unsteadiness  of  char- 
acter, hypochondria  and  melancholia. 

The  children  become  peevish  and  irritable,  they 
are  reserved  in  conversation,  apathetic  in  man- 
ner, hesitating  in  actions,  slovenly  in  dress  and 
contradictory.  Cerebral  anemia  is  of  common  oc- 


136  GENESIS 

currence  among  those  addicted  to  excess.  Vertigo 
is  therefore  a  common  symptom,  and  fainting  spells 
occur  often.  Girls  especially  are  liable  to  be  af- 
fected by  syncope.  Perspiration  breaks  forth  on 
the  slightest  exertion,  and  the  slightest  exercise 
occasions  much  shortness  of  breath.  Neuralgia 
of  the  testicles,  ovaries  and  the  bladder  is  also  fre- 
quently caused  by  excess.  The  neuralgia  of  the 
neck  of  the  bladder  is  particularly  distressing. 
The  patient  is  frequently  seized  with  a  desire  to 
pass  water,  and  the  evacuation  of  the  bladder  is 
attended  with  pain.  The  frequent  calls  to  urinate 
occur  more  often  during  the  day  than  during  the 
night. 

Particular  danger  of  long  continued  masturba- 
tion lies  in  the  development  of  impotency  in  men 
and  frigidity  in  women.  Through  the  frequent 
application  of  friction  to  the  parts  they  become  at 
first  hypersensitive  and  later  on  hyposensitive  and 
non-responsive  to  normal  excitations.  Accustomed 
to  excite  the  genitals  through  manual  and  other, 
often  reinforced,  stimulants,  the  masturbator  is 
later  on  impotent  to  reach  the  normal  acme 
through  normal  excitations,  as  they  take  place 
partly  through  the  internal  organic  events  in  the 
genitals,  partly  through  the  normal  external  phy- 
sical stimulants. 

Besides  the  nervous  phenomena,  there  are  often 
found  real  anatomical  alterations.  As  the  habit  is 
more  frequently  indulged  in  the  prolonged  con- 


CHILDREN    THIRTEEN   TO    SIXTEEN   YEARS     137 

gestion  produces  a  catarrhal  process  in  the 
urethra,  prostate,  seminal  vesicles  and  varicocele 
in  the  male;  and  in  the  female  catarrh  of  the 
ovaries,  tubes,  uterus  and  especially  of  the  endo- 
metrium.  This  condition  gives  rise  to  uncomfor- 
table and  distressing  sensations  which  demand  re- 
lief and  are  gotten  rid  off  only  by  a  continuation 
of  the  habit.  Thus  a  vicious  circle  is  continually 
at  work.  The  results  are  stricture  of  the  urethra, 
spermatorrhoea,  disturbances  of  the  intestinal 
tract,  as  dyspepsia,  flatulence  and  constipation  and 
palpitation  of  the  heart. 

The  congested  genital  glands,  furthermore,  ex- 
crete and  secrete  excessively.  In  this  way  the  ele- 
ments of  the  internal  secretion  are  either  in  a 
state  of  atrophy  or  otherwise  disturbed.  The  or- 
ganism, as  Gordon  puts  it,  will  thus  be  deprived 
of  these  important  elements,  hence  must  logically 
suffer. 

Furthermore,  every  onanist  feels  that  his  act 
degrades  his  manhood.  He  seems  to  know,  by 
intuition,  that  his  practice  is  injurious  to  his  body 
and  is  morally  wrong.  Still  in  spite  of  himself  he 
continues  to  indulge  in  his  favorite  pastime.  The 
will  seems  to  have  lost  its  entire  control.  He  is 
thus  engaged  in  a  conflict  between  moral  convic- 
tion and  sensual  indulgence.  Herein  lies  one  of 
the  most  harmful  effects  of  masturbation.  It  is 
undermining  the  individual's  will-power  and  de- 
stroying his  character.  Every  masturbator  re- 


138  GENESIS 

solves  again  and  again,  after  each  exercise,  to  re- 
sist henceforth  the  inclination  and  to  overcome 
the  temptation,  each  time  with  the  same  futile  re- 
sult. A  paralyzing  sensation  arises  in  him,  a  feel- 
ing of  shame  and  contempt  of  himself  overtakes 
him  because  he  has  again  failed  to  show  enough 
energy,  because  he  has  been  again  too  weak  to  re- 
sist the  impulse.  In  the  long  run  these  disturb- 
ing and  paralyzing  sensations  give  rise  to  the  con- 
viction of  lacking  in  will-power  and  to  the  feeling 
of  being  deficient  in  everything  else  in  life. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Lessons  for  Children  Sixteen  to  Eighteen  Years 
of  Age — Gonorrhoea,  Syphilis,  Continence. 

THE  last  lesson  in  sex  matters  ought  to  be 
given  to  boys  and  girls  after  they  have 
reached  the  age  of  puberty,  about  sixteen  to  eigh- 
teen years  of  age.  At  this  time  the  boy,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  in  our  modern  industrial  world  also 
the  girl,  leaves  the  family  to  go  out  into  the  world 
to  commence  the  struggle  for  existence.  There, 
in  the  office  or  in  the  factory,  the  boy  and  the  girl 
will  be  surrounded  by  many  temptations.  In- 
numerable chances  will  be  offered  to  them  to  sur- 
render their  chastity,  and  it  must  be  impressed 
upon  them,  how  necessary  and  important  it  is  for 
them  to  be  careful  and  not  to  allow  the  hot  temper 
of  youth  for  a  woman,  respectively  for  a  man,  to 
get  the  better  of  their  prudence. 

We  will,  in  the  first  place,  warn  them  of  the 
dangers  of  venereal  diseases  and  show  them  the 
fearful  results  of  promiscuous  intercourse.  The 
diseases  of  society  just  as  those  of  the  body,  says 
Stuart  Mill,  can  not  be  prevented  without  speak- 
ing openly  about  them.  The  social  diseases  must 
be  spoken  of  in  the  open  and  not  with  bated 
139 


140  GENESIS 

breath,  and  it  must  be  spoken  to  the  woman  no 
less  than  to  the  man.  For  it  is  not  conceivable 
that,  with  the  proper  knowledge,  any  woman,  with 
a  fair  amount  of  judgment,  would  permit  the  ap- 
proach of  a  possibly  tainted  man.  Le  Pileur  says : 
Such  lessons  to  young  girls,  showing  them  the 
dangers  to  which  they  expose  themselves,  can  only 
have  a  fvorable  influence.  Perhaps  the  physicians 
of  Saint-Lazare  will  then  hear  no  more,  from  at 
least  the  fourth  part  of  all  these  unfortunate  girls 
in  this  institution,  that  they  have  given  them- 
selves to  some  stranger.  We  will  not  hear  twenty 
per  cent,  of  them  answer  that  they  have  allowed 
themselves  to  be  deflored  out  of  curiosity,  to  know 
what  it  is,  to  be  as  smart  as  the  friends.  The  sub- 
ject of  venereal  diseases  is  altogether  too  largely 
taboo  among  us,  and  for  that  reason  they  con- 
tinue to  rot  the  core  of  society,  leaving  blindness, 
deformity,  invalidism  and  death  in  their  train 
disseminate. 

The  social  diseases  have  been  declared  shameful 
and  no  one  is  allowed  to  know  or  to  mention  them. 
Many  excellent  people  look  upon  venereal  diseases 
as  a  merited  punishment,  for  the  sin  of  immor- 
ality. In  the  popular  conception,  venereal  dis- 
eases are  diseases  of  debauchery  only.  There  is, 
says  Morrow,  on  the  part  of  the  public,  an  indif- 
ference, even  an  active  opposition,  to  this  enlight- 
enment, due  partly  to  the  erroneous  idea  that  these 
diseases  are  the  exclusive  appanage  of  vice,  but 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      141 

chiefly  to  the  traditional  shameful  character  with 
which  they  have  been  invested  by  popular  preju- 
dice. The  people  are  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
millions  of  guiltless  persons  acquire  these  diseases 
through  common  utensils  and  in  marriage.  The 
people  are  unaware  of  the  fact  that  these  dreadful 
diseases  embrace  among  their  victims  a  vast  num- 
ber of  innocent  children  and  virtuous  wives. 
There  is  more  venereal  infection,  says  Morrow, 
among  virtuous  wives  than  among  prostitutes. 
The  wife  and  unborn  child  are  surely  innocent  in 
every  sense  of  the  word.  They  are  incapable  of 
foreseeing  and  powerless  to  prevent  this  injury. 

Syphilis,  especially,  is  not  purely  a  sexual  dis- 
ease. It  is  often  acquired  in  the  most  innocent 
manner.  An  almost  imperceptible  lesion  in  the 
mouth  or  throat  of  the  syphilitic  exudes  a  virus 
which  may  be  conveyed  to  another,  innocent  per- 
son, by  a  pen,  a  pencil,  a  drinking  glass,  by  sur- 
gical and  dental  instruments  and  by  kissing.  Such 
innocent  people  do  not  deserve  punishment  and 
ought  to  be  protected.  The  only  practical  protec- 
tion is  the  removal  of  the  mist  of  ignorance. 
Ignorance  of  the  results  of  venereal  diseases  is 
often  ruinous. 

Especially  is  ignorance,  prevailing  about 
gonorrhoea,  often  very  disastrous.  Gonorrhoea  is 
Commonly  considered  a  benign  local  disease. 
Young  men  think  it  a  joke  to  have  gonorrhoeal 
infection  several  times  in  their  lives.  They  have 


142  GENESIS 

imbibed  false  views  in  regard  to  the  trivial  char- 
acter of  this  venereal  infection.  They  think 
gonorrhoea  is  not  more  serious  than  a  bad  cold. 
The  young  man  who  happens  to  have  escaped  a 
gonorrhoeal  infection  is  the  target  of  his  friends' 
jests.  Such  lucky  ones  are,  however,  very  scarce. 
Neisser,  the  discoverer  of  the  gonococcus,  claims 
that  of  the  adult  male  population  inhabiting  large 
towns  only  an  insignificant  proportion  escapes 
gonorrhoeal  infection.  Noeggerat  claims  that,  in 
New  York,  of  1,000  married  men  800  have  had 
gonorrhoea,  90  per  cent,  of  all  these  have  not  been 
healed  and  can  infect  their  wives,  and,  as  a  result, 
at  least,  three  out  of  every  five  married  women  in 
New  York  have  gonorrhoea. 

These  statistics  may  be  somewhat  exaggerated, 
still  the  percentage  of  diseased  young  men  is  ap- 
palling. At  least  50  per  cent,  of  young  men  ap- 
proaching the  age  of  maturity  become  infected 
with  venereal  diseases  in  a  single  year.  Kirchner, 
of  the  Prussian  ministerium  of  cultus,  claims  that 
about  100,000  men  suffer  daily  of  a  venereal 
disease  within  the  Prussian  monarchy.  The  re- 
sult is  a  loss  of  daily  income  of  at  least  250,000 
marks,  or  a  loss  of  90,000,000  marks  a  year. 

Rogers  claims  that  over  90  per  cent,  of  our 
young  men  stray  from  the  paths  of  virtue  before 
marriage;  60  per  cent,  contract  venereal  diseases 
which  are  difficult  to  cure.  More  wives  than  pros- 
stitutes  have  venereal  diseases,  innocently  con- 


CHILDREN   SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      143 

tracted  from  husbands.  Thousands  of  unborn 
babes  are  annually  killed  by  parental  infection. 
Sixty  per  cent,  of  the  blindness  in  this  country  is 
due  to  venereal  diseases.  One-eighth  of  all  cases 
in  New  York  hospitals  are  venereal.  Two  hun- 
dred thousand  infected  persons  walk  the  streets  of 
New  York  daily. 

The  reason  of  the  spread  of  the  diseases  of  this 
kind,  especially  the  reason  of  the  spread  of  gonor- 
rhoea, is  the  mistaken  idea  that  gonorrhoea  is  a 
local  trouble.  Even  among  the  educated  people 
who  have  had  the  best  opportunities  of  education 
and  refinement,  there  are  very  few  who  know  that 
of  the  triad  of  venereal  infections,  chancroid 
(which  may  produce  extensive  ulcerative  proc- 
esses and  mutilate  the  organs),  syphilis  and  gonor- 
rhoea, the  latter  once  acquired  may  remain  latent 
for  years  and  still  be  the  means  of  infecting  an 
innocent  wife  and  of  destroying  the  eyesight  of 
her  child.  The  so-called  cure  of  gonorrhoea  is 
often  merely  the  establishment  of  toleration  of 
the  presence  of  the  gonococcus  on  the  part  of  the 
individual's  urethra.  But  the  imperceptible  dis- 
charge still  remains  virulently  contagious  to  the 
healthy  virginal  genito-urinary  passages  of  the 
young  wife  and  to  the  delicate  tender  conjunc- 
tiva of  the  new  born  baby. 

Besides  this  danger  of  infecting  the  innocent 
mother  and  child,  gonorrhoea  is  not  such  an  in- 
nocent disease  even  for  the  man  himself.  It  is 


144  GENESIS 

not  a  local  disease,  it  is  a  general  infection,  and 
its  manifestations  may  be  as  grave  to  the  indi- 
vidual, and  perhaps  even  graver,  than  syphilis. 
The  complications  of  this  disease  may  be  disas- 
trous. The  infection  may  ascend  to  the  urinary 
passages  and  cause  a  catarrh  of  the  bladder  and  in- 
fection of  the  ureters  and  kidneys.  It  may  affect 
the  genital  organs,  as  the  testicles  and  prostate  in 
men,  and  uterus  and  tubes  and  ovaries,  and  even 
cause  peritonitis,  in  women.  The  germs  of  gonor- 
rhoea may  enter  the  blood  and  attack  the  joints 
(Osier  says:  in  many  respects  gonorrhoeal  ar- 
thritis is  the  most  damaging,  disabling  and  seri- 
ous of  all  the  complications  of  gonorrhoea),  they 
may  enter  the  heart  (gonorrhoeal  endocarditis 
may  develop  subsequent  to  the  primary  lesion), 
and  they  may  invade  the  brain,  causing  meningitis 
and  myelitis.  Gonorrhoea  often  becomes  chronic 
or  latent.  The  individual  considers  himself  cured, 
while  in  fact  the  gonorhoea  remains  contagious  for 
many  years.  This  ignorance  of  the  prolonged  in- 
fectious character  of  gonorrhoea  has  ruined  many 
and  many  a  young  wife.  The  non-multiplying 
gonococci,  which  have  apparently  been  deprived 
of  their  power  to  cause  suppuration  at  the  point 
of  the  first  infection,  may  possess  full  virulence 
and  also  a  capacity  of  producing  suppuration  if 
transferred  to  some  other  mucous  membrane,  es- 
pecially in  the  virginal  vulva  and  urethra,  Bartho- 
linian  glands  and  cervix,  tubes,  ovaries  and  peri- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      145 

toneum  of  the  newly  married  wife.  When  a  newly 
married  woman  experiences  a  leucorrhoea  with 
burning  pain  on  urinating,  it  is  ninety-nine  cases 
out  of  a  hundred  caused  by  the  gonococcus.  If 
two  weeks  after  she  was  married  she  feels  pain  in 
the  lower  abdomen,  the  case  is  suspicious  of 
gonorrhoeal  salpingitis,  for  the  gonorrhoeal  in- 
fection reaches,  as  a  rule,  the  tubes  ten  to  four- 
teen days  after  the  initial  infection  of  the  cervix. 
The  vagina  may  not  be  affected  at  all,  for  gonor- 
rhoeal vaginitis  is  exceedingly  rare,  because  the 
pavement  epithelium  covering  the  vaginal  surface 
seems  to  afford  protection.  Gonorrhoeal  endo- 
metritis  is  also  rare.  Gonorrhoea'  seems  to  infect 
the  female  genital  tract  by  jumps.  From  the 
urethra  and  vulva  the  infection  jumps  to  the 
cervix  and  from  there  to  the  tubes  and  ovaries. 

Kvon  if  the  non-multiplying  gonococci  should 
remain  inactive  in  the  female  genital  tract  in  the 
beginning  they  may  do  a  great  deal  of  damage 
later  on.  Gonorrhoea  may  exist  in  the  genital 
tract  during  the  period  of  pregnancy  without 
clinical  manifestations  and 'become  active  during 
the  puerpcrhmi,  which  explains  many  obscure 
cases  of  puerperal  infection.  In  the  passage  of 
the  child  through  tho  maternal  parts  the  conjunc- 
tiva may  become  infected,  arid  the  dMiijrrr  of 
blindness  is  imminent.  According  to  Neissrr 
there  are  now  in  Germany  thirty  thousand  blind 
persons  whose  loss  of  sight  may  be  thus  accounted 


146  GENESIS 

for.  Thus  the  disease  is  markedly  accentuated  in 
virulence  and  danger  in  the  innocent  wife  and 
mother  in  fulfilling  her  function,  and  the  results 
of  the  disease  are  appalling.  Eighty  per  cent,  of 
the  deaths  from  inflammatory  diseases  peculiar  to 
women,  75  per  cent,  of  all  special  surgical  opera- 
tions performed  on  women,  many  of  them  serious 
desexing  operations,  and  60  per  cent,  of  all  the 
work  done  by  specialists  in  diseases  of  women  are 
the  result  of  gonorrhoea.  Besides  the  fatal  op- 
erations in  the  wake  of  gonorrhoea  in  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases  of  primary  gonorrhoeal  infection  of 
the  urogenital  tract,  a  progressive  septicaemia  or 
pyaemia  develops,  leading,  as  a  rule,  to  certain 
death. 

Gonorrhoeal  infection  may  make  a  tragedy  of 
marriage  by  destroying  the  woman's  conceptional 
capacity  and  rendering  her  irrevocably  sterile,  in 
this  way  producing  childlessness,  and  by  sending 
thousands  of  women  to  the  operating  table  to  be 
condemned  to  the  mutilation  of  their  generative 
organs  to  save  their  lives. 

The  so-called  one-child  sterility  is  accounted 
for  in  a  large  measure  by  the  extension  of  a  pre- 
existing gonorrhoeal  infection  during  the  puer- 
perium.  In  this  way  50  per  cent,  or  more  of  all 
the  infected  women  are  rendered  absolutely  and 
irremedially  sterile,  in  addition  many  are  con- 
demned to  a  life-long  invalidism.  The  aspirations 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      147 

centered  in  motherhood  and  children  are  thus 
swept  away. 

Besides  mutilating  the  innocent  women,  gonor- 
rhoea destroys  the  eyesight  of  innocent  babies. 
From  70-80  per  cent,  of  the  ophthalmia  which 
blots  out  the  eyes  of  babies,  and  15-25  per  cent, 
of  all  blindness  is  caused  by  gonococcus  infection. 

To  give  this  loathsome  disease  to  his  wife  would, 
therefore,  be  a  moral  crime,  if  the  men  who  carry 
gonorrhoea  into  their  families  knew  the  conse- 
quences. But.,  as  a  rule,  the  misfortune  comes 
upon  the  family  quite  unaware.  Not  only  the 
woman  acquires  a  gonorrhoeal  infection  without 
her  knowledge  and  in  absence  of  all  local  or  gen- 
eral symptoms,  but  even  the  man  may  not  know 
that  he  is  still  harboring  infectious  material  in 
his  genital  tract.  Prof.  Bum  has  found  gono- 
cocci  in  the  urine  and  in  the  urethral  secretions 
five  and  ten  years  after  the  onset  of  the  infection, 
which  is  certainly  a  time  when  no  man  ever 
thinks  of  still  being  infectious.  In  this  way  the 
great  majority  of  infections  in  the  female  is  con- 
veyed from  chronic  gonorrhoea  in  the  male,  and 
the  man  not  infrequently  becomes  unaware  the 
murderer  of  his  mate. 

§6- 

The  other  most  appalling  venereal  disease  is 
syphilis.  It  may  become  the  cause  of  all  maladies 
humanity  is  afflicted  with.  In  gonorrhoeal  infec- 


148  GENESIS 

tion  the  individual  risks  the  wife  has  to  incur,  are 
.much  more  serious  than  those  following  syphilis. 
But  the  constitutional  disturbances  caused  by 
syphilis  and  the  risks  to  the  offspring  make  this 
disease  one  of  the  most  dreaded  affections  known 
to  medical  science.  Even  the  primary  infection 
may  become  disastrous  to  the  man  and  the  woman. 

The  prevalence  of  syphilis  is,  according  to  Mor- 
row, estimated  at  18  per  cent,  of  the  adult  popu- 
lation. Ruggles  found,  in  New  York  city  in  the 
better  class  of  families,  one-third  of  the  sons  of 
adult  age  infected  with  syphilis.  Syphilis  causes 
about  40  per  cent,  of  all  miscarriages,  and  the  mor- 
tality of  syphilitic  children  is  about  60  per  cent. 
Syphilis  is  the  only  disease  transmitted  to  the  off- 
spring in  full  virulence.  Sixty  to  eighty  per  cent. 
of  all  infected  children  die  before  being  born,  or 
come  into  the  world  with  the  mark  of  death  upon 
them.  The  mortality  of  the  children  who  have 
inherited  syphilis  from  their  father  is  about  28 
per  cent.,  of  those  who  have  inherited  it  from 
their  mother  over  60  per  cent. 

Syphilis  is  essentially  a  chronic  disease,  al- 
though it  has  an  acute  stage.  The  duration  of  the 
disease  is  unlimited.  It  may  remain  latent  for 
several  years  and  then  break  out,  either  in  form  of 
chronic  inflammations  or  in  form  of  syphilitic 
tumors,  called  gummata.  These  inflammations 
may  become  again  infectious.  Fournier  says, 
even  in  the  tertiary  period  of  syphilis,  e.  g.,  in  the 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      149 

tenth  year  after  the  primary  infection,  mucous 
papules  may  rise  in  the  mouth  or  in  the  vagina 
and  thus  be  infectious. 

Syphilis  plays  an  important  role  in  the  etiology 
of  almost  every  known  disease.  Syphilis  spares 
no  tissue  or  structure,  it  affects  every  organ  of 
the  body. 

In  the  alimentary  canal  and  its  accessory  glands, 
syphilis  may  cause  cicatricial  obstructions  of  the 
esophagus,  affections  of  the  stomach  and  intestines 
and  gummatous  productions  of  the  rectum.  The 
liver,  and  sometimes  the  pancreas,  are  affected 
with  syphilis,  either  in  form  of  chronic  inflamma- 
tions or  in  form  of  gummatous  nodules. 

In  the  respiratory  tract  we  find,  in  the  first 
place,  the  affections  of  the  nose.  The  septum  of 
the  nose  is  often  destroyed,  and  the  nose  sinks  in 
in  the  form  of  a  triangle.  The  palate  is  often 
destroyed  already  in  the  secondary  stage,  and  the 
patient's  speech  is  greatly  impaired.  The  syph- 
ilitic affections  of  the  larynx  cause  extensive  de- 
structions of  the  organ  and  a  permanent  impair- 
ment of  the  phonation.  Deformities  of  the  trachea 
are  often  also  the  consequence  of  syphilis.  Pneu- 
monia may  also  be  caused  by  syphilis.  Infiltra- 
tions of  the  lungs  are  not  such  a  rare  occurrence. 
Gummata  of  the  lungs  may  undergo  the  destruc- 
tive process,  and  cavities  are  formed  which  are 
not  infrequently  mistaken  for  tuberculosis. 


150  GENESIS 

Syphilis  often  affects  the  circulatory  system. 
Syphilitic  gummata  are  frequently  found  in  all 
the  muscular  parts  of  the  heart.  Syphilitic  myo- 
carditis and  sclerotic  endocarditis  are  not  rare. 
The  syphilitic  affection  of  the  ganglia  and  the 
nerves  of  the  heart  are  the  cause  of  different  forms 
of  angina  pectoris.  Syphilis  is  often  the  cause 
of  arteriosclerosis,  and  the  syphilitic  affections  of 
the  smaller  blood  vessels  produce  manifestations 
in  every  tissue.  The  different  aneurisms  are  also 
mostly  caused  by  syphilis  of  the  arteries.  The 
spleen  and  the  other  blood-producing  organ,  the 
bone-marrow,  are  frequently  the  seat  of  syphilitic 
manifestations.  Pseudoleukaemia  is  often  caused 
by  syphilis. 

The  genito-urinary  system  is  especially  affected 
by  syphilis.  Apart  from  the  initial  affection, 
which  is  usually  found  at  the  genitals,  tertiary 
syphilis  of  the  genital  organs  is  not  rare.  Syph- 
ilitic orchitis  is  often  observed,  and  gummata  of 
the  penis  and  testicles  are  not  a  rarity.  Gummata 
are  also  frequently  found  on  the  external  genitals 
of  the  woman.  Gummata  are  not  rarely  observed 
at  every  internal  genital  organ.  The  ovaries  are 
often  affected  in  form  of  diffuse  or  gummatous 
oophoritis.  Syphilis  is  often  the  etiological  factor 
of  Bright's  disease. 

The  skeleton  is  also  often  affected  by  syphilis. 
Besides  the  bone-marrow,  the  bones  themselves 
are  especially  subject  to  syphilitic  lesions.  No 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      151 

joint  escapes  the  attacks  of  syphilis,  the  most  fre- 
quently affected  are  the  knees  and  the  elbows. 

The  muscles  are  affected  by  syphilis  in  form  of 
an  irritative  myositis  and  of  chronic  interstitial 
inflammation.  Gummatous  infiltrations  also  affect 
the  muscles.  The  tendons  are  affected  in  form  of 
an  acute  irritative  tendo-synovitis.  Swelling  of 
the  bursae  is  quite  frequently  found  in  syphilitic 
patients. 

Syphilis  of  the  nervous  system  is  especially  dis- 
astrous for  the  patient.  Syphilis  not  rarely  causes 
cerebral  and  spinal  meningitis.  Most  of  the  tum- 
ors found  in  the  brain  are  of  syphilitic  origin  and 
cause  headaches,  insomnia,  flashing  of  light  before 
the  eyes,  vertigo,  epileptic  convulsions,  a  retarded 
pulse,  polyuria  and  polydipsia,  and  greatly  affect 
the  eye-sight.  Gummata  of  the  brain  also  cause 
aphasia,  hemiplegia  and  paralysis.  Syphilis  of 
the  spinal  cord  causes  heavy  weight  of  the  ex- 
tremities, neuralgia,  paralysis  of  the  muscles  and 
paresis  of  the  bladder  and  rectum.  The  insanity 
caused  by  syphilis  may  mimic  every  known  form 
of  mental  derangement,  such  as  mania,  melan- 
cholia, paretic  dementia,  paresis,  locomotor  ataxia 
and  general  paresis. 

Syphilis  is  thus  a  scourge,  disastrous  not  only 
to  the  infected  individual,  but  to  his  family  and 
causing  degeneration  of  the  race.  Still  there  are 
strong  reasons  for  the  belief 'of  many  men,  fore- 
most in  the  medical  profession,  that  gonorrhoea 


152  GENESIS 

is  more  dangerous  than  syphilis.  Among  women, 
gonorrhoea  causes  certainly  more  innocent  suffer- 
ing than  any  other  disease.  But  no  matter  which 
of  the  two  is  more  disastrous,  there  is  no  greater 
scourge  devastating  every  nation  to-day  than  ven- 
ereal diseases.  No  other  disease  has  such  a  mur- 
derous influence  upon  the  offspring  as  syphilis, 
and  no  other  disease  has  such  a  destructive  influ- 
ence upon  the  health  and  reproductive  function  of 
woman  as  gonorrhoea. 

Thus  the  dangers  of  venereal  diseases  beset  not 
only  the  individual  but  through  the  individual  the 
whole  race.  Both  venereal  diseases,  as  Morrow 
says,  respect  no  social  position  and  recoil  before 
no  virtue.  They  ramify  through  every  class  and 
rank  of  society.  Like  "pallida  mors"  they  ap- 
proach with  equal  step  the  habitations  of  the  poor 
and  the  palaces  of  the  rich. 

With  these  dangers  staring  at  him  it  is  to  be 
marveled  how  any  young  man  could  even  think  of 
exposing  himself,  his  future  wife  and  offspring  to 
all  these  dangers  for  the  mere  pittance  of  a  short 
momentary  enjoyment  in  the  company  of  pesti- 
ferous individuals.  But  for  the  dearth  of  whole- 
some information  no  young  man  would  ever  seek 
the  society  of  these  so-called  fallen  angels  whom 
the  Bible  describes  as  the  "strange  woman  which 
flattereth  with  her  words,  her  feet  go  down 
to  death,  her  steps  take  hold  on  hell,  going 
down  to  the  chambers  of  death."  The  meretri- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS       153 

cious  women  are  constantly  seeking  those  whom 
they  may  devour  and  are  laughing  at  the  whole- 
sale ruin  they  wrought.  These  unscrupulous 
courtesans  are  individuals  without  industry,  pre- 
fering  indolent  lives  with  a  show  of  finery  and  a 
brief  period  of  at  least  questionable  gratification. 
They  indulge  their  selfish  lust  ad  libitum,  with 
no  thought  whatsoever  as  to  what  the  result  may 
be.  Most  of  the  devotees  of  meretricious  ^enery 
spend  their  brief  lives  trying  to  lead  boys  and 
young  men  into  wickedness  and  mischief.  As  a 
rule,  they  are  all  unclean  and  diseased  and  rejoice 
to  return  to  their  partners,  the  so-called  "pros- 
tituants,"  the  infection  they  received  from  other 
"prostituants."  The  young  man,  therefore,  will 
in  a  majority  of  cases  surely  carry  away  some  foul 
disease  from  these  women. 

Swayed  by  their  animal  passion,  young  men 
resort  to  these  unfortunate  women  not  only  of 
their  own  accord  but  even  by  the  advice  of  their 
parents.  It  is  a  daily  occurrence  for  a  father  to 
advise  and  to  hand  over  some  money  to  his  young 
son  of  18-20  years  of  age  to  go  to  these  loose  im- 
pure women,  because,  in  his  ignorance,  he  thinks 
that  it  can  not  be  helped.  Such  actions  of  mature 
men  are  scarcely  comprehensible.  We  can  under- 
stand the  action  of  the  youth.  The  majority  of 
young  men  go  into  illicit  sensual  life  knowing  lit- 
tle of  its  dangers  and  pitfalls,  they  often  drift  into 
such  a  life  by  insensible  gradations.  They  become 


154  GENESIS 

not  seldom  contributors  to  the  resources  of  mere- 
tricious venery,  because  they  labor  under  the  im- 
pression that  to  be  such  is  manly.  But  how 
parents  could  actively  help  their  young  son  to 
jeopardize  his  own  health  and  the  life  of  his  future 
family,  can  only  be  explained  by  their  almost  crim- 
inal ignorance  in  these  matters.  When  we  con- 
sider how  difficult  and  rare  a  thing  it  is  to  thor- 
oughly cure  a  woman  of  gonorrhoea,  we  will  un- 
derstand how  dangerous  it  is  for  the  youth  to 
trust  himself  at  any  time  in  her  subsequent  life 
within  her  infected  presence. 

Even  those  whom  some  ray  of  light  about  the 
imminent  dangers  has  reached  have  only  hazy 
ideas  of  the  danger  of  infection.  Ruggles  says 
that  he  knew  widows,  and  the  author  also  knew 
a  few,  who  procured  mistresses  for  their  own  sons 
in  order  to  save  them  from  the  danger  of  vene- 
real diseases,  as  though  there  could  be  any  safety 
in  the  company  of  any  kind  of  loose  and  impure 
women.  If  these  careful  and  loving  mothers  were 
better  instructed  they  would  have  known  that 
clandestine  vice  is,  as  a  rule,  more  dangerous  in 
regard  to  contracting  venereal  diseases  than  the 
immorality  of  the  street. 

The  ignorance  prevailing  about  the  dangers  of 
venereal  diseases  is  also  responsible  for  the  levity 
with  which  marriages  with  profligates  are  con- 
tracted. By  a  strange  irony  of  fate,  says  Morrow, 
the  diseases  of  vice,  transplanted  to  the  bed  of 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      155 

virtue,  often  become  intensified  in  virulence  and 
danger.  Still  with  many  girls  the  young  man 
who  has  most  promiscuously  and  profusely  scat- 
tered his  "wild  oats"  has  been  looked  upon  as  the 
most  favored  one  among  possible  husbands.  How 
there  can  be  anything  alluring  to  marry  a  man 
with  a  past  when  there  is  the  great  peril  that  the 
young  bride  may  get  up  on  the  morning  after  the 
wedding  day  an  invalid  for  life,  can  only  be  ex- 
plained by  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  gravity 
of  venereal  diseases.  If  the  mother  knew  that  a 
man  who  has  led  an  unclean  life  is  not  a  safe  hus- 
band for  her  daughter,  if  she  were  aware  of  the 
fact  that  dissipated  men  do  not  make  desirable 
husbands,  she  would  look  more  for  virtue  than 
money  in  her  future  son-in-law.  If  the  girl  knew 
the  host  of  definite  and  indeterminable  lesions 
which  may  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  various  ven- 
ereal diseases,  if  she  knew  all  the  dangers  lurk- 
ing for  her  and  her  offspring,  she  would  never 
condone  moral  depravity  in  her  husband  and  the 
father  of  her  children.  Her  whole  nature  would 
revolt  against  the  wedlock  with  a  man  whose  body 
is  a  sink  of  corruption.  For  it  will  be  she  who 
will  have  to  suffer  most.  It  is  upon  the  woman 
that  the  burden  of  shame  and  suffering,  of  dis- 
ease and  death  is  chiefly  laid. 

Besides  the  girl  contemplating  marriage,  every 
girl,  who  knew  all  the  dangers  of  contracting  a 
disease,  would  be  more  capable  of  understanding 


156  GENESIS 

the  seriousness  of  her  taking  a  false  step  herself 
and  guard  herself  against  it.  If  the  girl  knew  of 
the  prevalence  of  venereal  diseases  among  men, 
and  her  great  danger  from  this  source,  she  would 
not  so  easily  debase  herself  and  sully  her  vestal 
purity.  The  girl  ought  to  know  that  the  sexual 
instinct  is  imperious  in  its  demands,  and  that  the 
man  is  usually  the  aggressor.  If  she  yields  to  a 
too  ardent  lover  she  may  contract  a  serious  dis- 
ease. Only  full  knowledge  can  adequately  assist 
her.  Experience,  says  Morrow,  shows  that  thou- 
sands suffer  physical  and  moral  wreckage  from 
trusting  to  blind  instinct,  as  the  sole  and  suf- 
ficient guide  for  its  regulation. 

The  danger  of  sexual  exploitation  of  young 
girls,  by  certain  men,  is  much  greater  the  less  the 
girls  are  instructed  about  the  social  dangers  and 
the  physiological  consequences  of  a  chance  ac- 
quaintance. The  girl  ought  to  be  taught  that  one 
mistake  blasts  a  young  girl's  life.  Let  a  young 
woman  stray  but  once  from  the  path  of  virtue, 
or  let  there  be  even  one  breath  of  suspicion  against 
her  virtue,  whether  well  founded  or  not,  and  there 
is  no  forgiveness  for  her  in  this  world.  She  has 
suffered  an  irretrievable  loss.  Her  greatest  enemy, 
in  such  a  case,  is  woman  herself.  Society  admits 
the  acknowledged  libertine  to  its  most  exclusive 
circles,  but  forever  ostracises  the  woman  whose 
one  false  step  has  been  found  out.  The  man  may 
emerge  from  the  mire  of  dissipation  without  a 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      157 

spot  of  social  shame  upon  his  character,  for  the 
woman,  there  is  no  return.  Shame  and  degrada- 
tion follow  her  even  to  the  grave. 

If  the  girl  further  knew  the  physiological  con- 
sequences of  her  transgression,  if  she  knew  that 
she  may  become  gravid,  and  thus  publish  to  the 
world  the  folly  she  has  been  guilty  of,  such  cases 
as-  are  often  seen  in  maternity  hospitals  of  girls 
between  the  ages  of  12-15  years  being  pregnant, 
without  knowing  the  nature  of  the  sex  relation, 
would  never  happen.  Lewis  says :  absolute  ignor- 
ance of  the  existence  even  of  venereal  diseases 
usually  obtains  in  the  case  of  the  young  girls, 
many  of  whom  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  re- 
sult of  intercourse,  because  no  one  has  told  them. 
He  has  known  girls  of  13  and  14  years  of  age  to 
become  pregnant  without  realizing  their  condition. 
The  author  met  with  a  gravid  girl  of  17  years  of 
age  who  had  no  idea  what  pregnancy  means  and 
whore  it  resulted  from. 

The  prophylactic  value  of  education,  which  has 
been  applied  to  the  prevention  of  almost  all  com- 
municable diseases,  would  surely  also  be  seen  in  this 
dreadful  disease,  this  cancer  of  the  body  politic, 
meretricious  venery,  which  poisons  the  very 
sources  of  the  family  and  of  the  nation.  But  for 
the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  girls,  regarding 
the  dangers  and  pitfalls  that  beset  their  lives' 
pathway,  over  sixty  thousand  girls  would  not  be 
led  into  a  life  of  shame,  every  year,  in  this  coun- 


158  GENESIS 

try.    These  unfortunate  girls  do  not  all  come  from 
the  slums  of  the  great  cities,  but  many  come  from 
refined    country    homes.      Belaschkos's    statistics 
show  that  55  per  cent,  of  all  the  venal  women 
come  from  the  great  cites  and  45  per  cent,  from 
the  country.     Thirty-four  per  cent  of  these  girls 
belonged  to  middle-class  families,  and  3  per  cent. 
of  them  were  graduates  from  high  schools.    Most 
of  these  devotees  of  meretricious  venery  have  be- 
come so  through  the  fundamental  vice  of  laziness, 
and  it  is  sentimentality  pure  and  simple  always  to 
speak  of  betrayed  innocence  or  dire  poverty.     So- 
cial and  not  economic  conditions,  says  Nascher, 
are  responsible  for  most   of  the  prostitution  in 
New  York  city.    Very  few  are  driven  to  it  through 
want.     The  predisposing  causes  are  vicious  sur- 
roundings, the  desire  for  pleasure,  or  the  gratifi- 
cation of  erotic   desires  and   occasionally   an  in- 
herent, vicious  disposition/   (Gibb,  who  examined 
900  children  for  the  society  of  prevention  of  cru- 
elty to  children  has  found  girls  of  nine  or  ten 
years  of  age  and  even  younger  with  abnormally 
developed  instincts,  who  often  submit  willingly.) 
But   the  most   serious  among  the  factors   which 
work  together  to  bring  many  a   girl  to  ruin  is 
ignorance  and  the  lack  of  proper  education.     If 
the  girls  knew  that  the  career  of  the  venal  woman 
lasts    scarcely    ten    years    (Clifford   G.    Roe,    in 
Woman's  World,  September,  1909,  claims  that  the 
average  life  of  these  girls  is  about  five  years,  ac- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      159 

cording  to  the  best  statistics),  and  that  it  is  a 
large  sewer,  a  garbage  dump  and  a  crematory, 
they  would  surely  not  be  so  easily  led  to  embrace 
this  vile  profession.  But  the  young  girls  are 
started  in  life  entirely  ignorant  of  all  the  dan- 
gers about  them,  and  the  result  is  this  vast  army 
of  unfortunates.  In  this  way,  says  Lewis,  ven- 
ereal diseases  persist,  sexual  crime  abounds,  de- 
generacy remains  and  countless  victims,  year  after 
year,  pay  the  penalty  of  ignorance. 

The  best  prophylaxis  of  impurity  is  the  avoid- 
ance principally  of  intoxicating  beverages,  chance 
acquaintances,  vanity  and  pleasure-seeking.  The 
girl's  attention  has  to  be  called  to  the  danger  lying 
in  the  habit  of  drinking  intoxicating  liquors.  A 
girl  has  only  to  taste  a  drop  of  liquor  in  a  strange 
man's  company,  and  her  chastity  is  in  the  greatest 
danger  to  desert  her  for  good.  It  will  not  take 
very  long  before  this  girl  will  indulge  in  the  ex- 
cessive use  of  alcohol,  which  dulls  the  moral 
senses  of  men  and  women.  The  girl  has  further 
to  beware  of  the  danger  of  chance  acquaintances. 
Young  men  of  such  acquaintances,  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred,  will  do  all  in  their  power 
to  induce  a  girl  to  drink  intoxicating  drinks,  and, 
when  she  has  become  excited  by  the  unaccustomed 
beverage,  to  ruin  her  chastity.  The  girl  must 
particularly  be  warned  of  the  great  danger  lying 
in  vanity  of  personal  appearance.  Many  a  girl 
has  sold  her  virtue  for  fine  clothes  and  outside 


160  GENESIS 

finery,  many  a  girl  has  sold  her  health,  morality 
and  even  her  soul  for  a  few  showy  bawbles.  Last, 
but  not  least,  there  is  the  danger  in  pleasure- 
seeking  and  in  an  absorbing  love  of  gaiety.  Block 
says:  The  seducer  is  really  not  the  particular 
man  but  the  big  city.  The  luxurious  hotels,  res- 
taurants, music-halls,  dance-halls,  theatres,  etc., 
and  the  elegant  clothes  of  the  rich  allure  the  poor 
shop-girls,  milliners,  dressmakers  and  servant- 
girls  to  the  career  of  the  mistress  in  such  big  num- 
bers that  a  pure  girl  over  25  years  of  age  is  rarely 
found  in  this  class  in  the  big  cities  in  Europe. 
Alcohol,  vanity  and  pleasure-seeking  thus  lead  to 
the  evil  of  impurity  and  to  a  life  of  ruin,  desola- 
tion, sickness  and  degradation.  A  girl  must, 
therefore,  be  made  acquainted  with  all  these  pit- 
falls, in  the  outside  world,  before  she  leaves  her 
mother's  protecting  presence.  She  has  to  learn 
above  all  of  the  high  and  holy  function  of  her 
genital  apparatus  and  of  the  sickness,  shame  and 
sorrow  which  are  sure  to  follow  any  profanation 
of  these  functions. 

Even  the  girl  who  is  sent  away  to  college  has  to 
know  all  these  dangers  and  pitfalls.  In  addition 
she  has  to  be  warned  against  the  danger  in  the 
sex  overvaluation  of  the  most  unhealthy  sensua- 
lists of  indulgence,  found  in  the  modern  literature 
of  the  so-called  feminists.  Those  novels,  says 
Howard,  that  are  written  by  the  modern  woman 
all  show  an  itching  of  the  sexual  centre.  The  pas- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  TEARS      161 

sion  is  all  there,  but  perverted,  unsatisfied,  mas- 
turbatic.  These  writers  seriously  proclaim  the 
absolute  dictature  of  Eros  as  the  new  ethics.  They 
wish  to  make  man  the  weak  slave  of  his  or  her 
erotic  excitement.  They  call  it  in  German  "Sich 
ausleben."  The  genius  of  propagation  seems  to 
have  deluded  and  beguiled  these  new  moralists  to 
proclaim  their  intoxication  of  sensuality  as  a  new 
religion  of  the  personality. 

The  girl  who  has  chosen  an  intellectual  pursuit 
has  to  be  taught  before  leaving  home  that  the  real 
ethic  is  the  defense  of  all  external  sex-values. 
Man  is  more  than  a  mere  sex-being.  The  spir- 
itual kind  of  virginity  is  the  one  which  consists  in 
the  sensual  affairs  not  being  dominating,  exacting 
or  filling  the  inner  life.  The  Jewish  philosopher, 
Philo  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  says :  By  the  com- 
pany of  the  virgin  with  man  she  becomes  a  woman, 
by  the  soul's  company  with  God  the  woman  be- 
comes again  a  virgin.  Such  are  the  lessons  the 
young  girl  should  take  along,  when  she  leaves 
home,  that  she  may  be  protected  against  the  doc- 
trines of  sensual  hyperestheticisim  of  the  modern 
writers. 

The  necessity  of  self-control  and  of  chastity 
must  be  impressed  not  only  upon  the  mind  of  the 
young  woman,  but  also  upon  the  young  man  as 
the  only  way  to  secure  the  strong  mental  and 
physical  qualities  for  the  future  paternal  and  ma- 
ternal relations. 


162  GENESIS 

There  is  not  the  slightest  shadow  of  support, 
in  any  teachings  of  physiology  or  hygiene,  for  the 
present  double  standard  of  morality  of  the  sexes. 
As  the  author  has  shown  in  another  place,  the  de- 
mand for  strict  female  chastity  originally  de- 
pended upon  the  law  of  inheritance.  It  was  re- 
quired in  the  interest  of  posterity.  But  since  the 
arrival  of  syphilis  in  Europe  with  Columbus'  men 
in  1495,  the  interest  of  posterity  requires  even 
stricter  chastity  in  the  man  than  in  the  woman. 
There  is  no  reason  anyhow  why  a  moral  wrong- 
in  the  woman  should  be  a  justifiable  necessity  with 
the  man.  From  no  medical  studies  or  investiga- 
tions, anywhere  attainable,'  would  the  physical 
necessity  of  sowing  of  "wild  oats"  for  a  young 
man  hold  good.  If  we  admit  that,  as  far  as  the 
gentler  sex  is  concerned,  continence  is  compatible 
with  health,  then  the  general  belief  of  young  men 
that  sensual  indulgence  is  necessary  for  healthy 
manhood,  has  no  justification  in  physiology.  Pur- 
ity is  as  little  injurious  to  a  man  as  to  a  woman. 
It  is  a  most  absurd  and  erroneous  teaching  that, 
unless  inclination  is  gratified,  a  man's  health  will 
suffer.  No  man  was  ever  the  worse  for  continence. 
The  opinion  that  continence  is  harmful  because 
every  muscle,  not  used,  atrophies  is  entirely 
erroneous.  The  essential  organs  of  generation  are 
"lands,  like  the  tear  glands  or  the  mammary 
glands,  their  function  is  intermittent  and  depends 
upon  certain  stimuli.  The  tear  glands  do  not 


CHILDREN   SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      163 

atrophy,  even  if  a  man  has  not  cried  for  years. 
The  instinct  of  generation  has  been  compared 
with  the  instinct  of  hunger  and  thirst,  and  as 
the  latter  must  be  satisfied,  so  must  the  former 
be  gratified.  But  there  is  no  proper  parallelism 
between  these  two  instincts.  Food  and  drink  are 
vital  necessities  to  replace  the  stuffs  consumed  in 
the  metabolism  of  the  vital  functions;  the  gene- 
rative instinct  does  not  serve  any  vital  necessity. 
This  instinct  could,  if  at  all,  only  be  compared 
with  the  instinct  of  micturition  or  defecation,  and 
the  relief  of  the  physical  pressure  in  the  genera- 
tive organs  is  brought  about  by  the  self -regulating 
action  of  nocturnal  emissions.  It  may  be  more 
natural  and  agreeable  for  a  healthy  man  or  woman, 
after  they  have  reached  a  certain  age,  to  indulge 
in  the  exercise  of  their  organs  of  generation  at 
reasonable  intervals,  than  to  abstain  from  it.  But 
to  proclaim  that  this  abstinence  is  healthy  for 
women  and  injurious  to  men  is  sheer  absurdity. 
It  is  especially  hard  to  understand  how  any  med- 
ical man  could  recommend  to  a  young  man  to  re- 
sort to  illicit  relations  for  health  and  to  jeopardize 
his  own  health  and  that  of  his  future  family,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  indiscriminate  union  of 
prostitution  is  the  cause  of  sexual  disease  in  at 
least  sixty  out  of  every  hundred  young  men.  If 
it  is  justified  to  recommend  illicit  relations  to 
young  men,  as  a  cure  for  masturbation,  instead 
of  explaining  to  him  that  a  healthy  hygiene  and 


164  GENESIS 

the  exercise  of  his  will-power  will  make  easy  the 
control  of  the  desire  without  any  loss  of  health, 
then  why  not  recommend  the  same  remedy  to 
young  women?  Continence  is  no  more  injurious 
to  the  man  than  to  the  woman.  The  conventional 
view  that  incontinence  in  men  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition of  health  must  be  corrected.  Instead  of 
the  popular  fallacy  that  a  young  man  is  physically 
the  worse  for  a  clean,  moral  life,  the  entire  weight 
of  evidence  of  the  world's  foremost  medical  schol- 
ars is  unreservedly  of  the  opinion  that  he  is  phy- 
sically better  for  it.  It  is  recognized  by  the  high- 
est authorities  that  continence  is  perfectly  com- 
patible with  the  most  perfect  health.  Chastity 
properly  understood  is  health,  it  never  does  any 
harm  either  to  mind  or  body. 

Abstinence,  says  Forel,  or  sexual  continence  is 
by  no  means  impractical  for  a  normal  young  man 
of  average  constitution,  assiduous  in  intellectual 
and  physical  work  and  abstaining  from  artificial 
excitations.  When  sexual  maturity  is  complete, 
continence  is  usually  facilitated  by  nocturnal 
emissions.  In  these  wet  dreams  the  seminal  fluid 
in  men  and  the  secretions  of  the  genital  glands  in 
women  are  thrown  off.  These  emissions  take 
place  in  every  healthy  person  at  periodic  intervals, 
the  length  of  time  between  the  emissions  depend- 
ing upon  the  peculiarities  of  temperament,  habits 
and  conditions  of  life.  The  health  does  not  suffer 
in  any  way  from  those  emissions.  They  are  a 


CHILDREN   SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      165 

purely  physiological  process  just  as  menstruation. 

The  sexually  normal  man,  says  Loevenfeld,  who 
has  not  weakened  his  power  of  resistance  against 
sensual  impressions  by  sensual  abuse,  is  able  to 
stand  lasting  abstinence  without  any  harm,  pro- 
vided he  is  leading  a  regular,  industrious  and 
hygienic  mode  of  life.  His  continence  is  the  easier 
the  more  consistently  it  is  carried  through  under 
all  circumstances. 

Even  those  who  are  predisposed  to  nervousness, 
says  Aschaffenborg,  do  not  suffer  any  harm  from 
sexual  continence  if  the  impression  is  awakened 
in  them  that  abstinence  can  never  be  injurious. 

Moll  says:  At  the  present  time,  most  medical 
men  agree  that  sensual  abstinence,  in  a  general 
way,  is  not  harmful  and  that  it  has  an  injurious 
effect  only  upon  a  small  minority.  This  minority 
consists  of  people  suffering  from  sexual  hyper- 
aesthesia  and  so  dominated  by  this  anomaly  that 
they  are  kept  back  from  every  activity  whatsoever. 

Hutchinson  says:  The  belief  that  the  exercise 
of  the  sex  function  is  necessary  to  the  health  of 
the  male,  at  any  age,  is  a  pure  delusion,  while  be- 
fore full  maturity  it  is  highly  injurious. 

Ruggles  says:  Sexual  abstinence  is  compatible 
with  perfect  health  and  tends  to  increase  virility 
through  reabsorption  of  the  semen. 

Jacobsohn  wrote  over  two  hundred  letters  to  pro- 
fessors of  physiology,  hygiene,  venereal  diseases, 
internal  diseases,  nervous  diseases  and  insanity  for 


166  GENESIS 

their  opinions,  concerning  male  sexual  continence. 
All  answers  with  a  very  few  exceptions  declare 
continence  conducive  to  health. 

Pfliiger  answers:  If  all  the  authorities  of  the 
world  should  proclaim  the  innocuousness  of  con- 
tinence it  would  have  no  influence  upon  youth,  for 
forces  are  here  active  which  will  break  every  ob- 
stacle. 

Thus  Pfliiger  admits  that  continence  is  com- 
patible with  perfect  health  and  only  thinks  that 
the  force  of  sensuality  would  sweep  aside  all  recom- 
mendations of  abstinence.  Now,  about  the  pos- 
sibility of  total  continence,  there  may  be  a  great 
difference  of  opinion.  But  granted  absolute  ab- 
stinence is  only  an  ideal,  no  ideal  can  be  realized, 
otherwise  it  would  not  be  an  ideal.  We  can  only 
approach  an  ideal,  and  this  would  be  a  great  gain 
in  regard  to  sensual  continence.  Nacke  says,  that 
absolute  sexual  abstinence  is  an  utopia  just  as  the 
total  abolition  of  prostitution,  public  and  clan- 
destine, or  the  absolute  abstinence  of  alcohol. 
Man's  impulses  are  too  powerful,  but  they  may  be 
restrained  and  kept  in  proper  bounds. 

Muchin  answers  to  Jacobsohn's  letter  that  the 
opinion  of  the  injurious  effect  of  sensual  continence 
is  not  only  entirely  groundless  prejudice,  but  very 
dangerous  from  the  ethical  and  sanitary  point  of 
view.  Kraepellin  answers  that  continence  is  not 
injurious,  and  that  its  advantage  in  avoiding  ven- 
ereal infection  is  apparent.  Gaertner  also  does 


CHILDREN   SIXTEEN  TO   EIGHTEEN  YEARS      167 

not  think  that  sensual  continence  is  injurious  to 
young  men.  Cramer  writes:  Sensual  continence 
before  marriage  is  not  injurious.  Finkler  answers 
that  sensual  continence  is  not  injurious  to  young 
men  but,  on  the  contrary,  profitable  to  body  and 
mind.  Lassar  also  thinks  that  sensual  continence 
is  not  injurious  to  young  men.  Seifert  says,  his 
experiences  teach  him  that  continence  is  not  in- 
jurious. Gruber  says:  Sensual  gratification  is 
surely  natural,  but  this  is  no  reason  why  conti- 
nence should  be  injurious.  Jiirgensen  thinks  that 
sensual  continence  per  se  is  not  injurious.  Hoff- 
mann considers  sensual  continence  useful. 
Striimpell  thinks  that  sensual  continence  is  not 
directly  but  indirectly  useful  by  preventing  ve- 
nereal infection,  but  it  is  surely  not  injurious. 
Tuczek  is  of  the  opinion  that  sensual  continence 
is  useful.  Prof.  v.  Leyden  says  that,  in  his  expe- 
rience, he  has  never  seen  injurious  consequences 
from  sensual  continence.  Hein  says  that  in  most 
men  sensual  continence  is  not  injurious.  Prof.  v. 
Griitzner  writes  that  in  his  opinion  sensual  con- 
tinence is  almost  never  injurious.  Prof.  Meschede. 
during  47  years  in  his  psychiatric  practice,  has 
never  seen  a  case  of  insanity  caused  by  sensual 
continence.  The  plethora  of  semen  is  prevented 
by  nocturnal  pollutions  which  have  the  effect  of 
a  safety-valve.  Weber  writes  that  sensual  conti- 
nence is  not  injurious  to  healthy  young  men,  but 
on  the  contrary  useful.  Hoche  is  of  the  opinion 


108  GENESIS 

that  sensual  continence  is  not  injurious  to  young 
men  and  does  not  lead  to  masturbation.  Neisser 
says :  Most  of  our  young  men  could  remain  con- 
tinent much  longer  than  is  the  case  nowadays. 

Finger  in  "Sexual  Probleme"  also  thinks  that 
as  far  as  syphilis  is  concerned  there  can  not  be 
any  question  of  continence  but  of  sexual  moral  dis- 
soluteness of  our  youth.  For  of  men  infected  with 
syphilis,  almost  sixty  per  cent,  are  in  the  age  from 
15-21  years,  and  only  25  per  cent,  in  the  age  of 
21-23  years,  thus  in  an  age  when  sexual  maturity 
has  not  as  yet  been  reached. 

This  statistic  shows  that  it  is  not  at  all  the 
question  about  the  men  being  continent,  but  about 
the  boy  controling  early  passions.  The  -  man  is 
always  able  to  control  his  passions.  The  more 
healthy,  says  Chassaignac,  and  the  nearer  the 
normal  an  individual  is,  the  better  he  can  not  only 
control  his  passions,  but  the  less  is  his  condition 
likely  to  be  disturbed  by  continence.  It  is  the 
neurasthenic  who  is  most  prone  to  be  upset  by  an 
attempted  or  enforced  continence  and  who,  as  well, 
is  most  given  to  excess. 

The  international  Brussels  congress  also  de- 
clared that  a  clean  moral  life  for  a  man  is  not 
prejudicial  to  the  health,  but  on  the  contrary,  is 
to  be  recommended  from  a  purely  hygienic  point 
of  view. 

Thus  it  is  the  consensus  of  most  of  the 
great  medical  thinkers  that  it  is  not  preju- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      169 

dicial  to  the  health  of  a  man  to  keep  his  body 
clean  until  he  has  found  a  true  mate  in  life.  The 
boy  who  has  just  passed  adolescence  ought,  there- 
fore, to  learn  that  the  injudicious  premature  use 
of  the  organs  of  generation  is  prejudicial  to  his 
health  and  brings  dangers  with  it.  There  is  a 
great  distinction  between  puberty  and  nubility, 
and  the  boy  must  learn  to  check  his  sensual  im- 
pulse until  marriage,  which  is  not  so  hard  to  ac- 
complish. 

There  are  enough  sexual  stoics  in  the  world  to 
prove  by  practical  experience  that  continence  is 
possible.  Caesar  says  of  the  ancient  Teutons, 
"ante  annum  vicesimum  sextum  feminis  notionem 
habere  inter  res  turpissimas  habeatur,"  "it  was 
considered  one  of  the  most  shameful  things  to 
have  any  relations  with  a  woman  before  the  twenty- 
sixth  year  of  age."  Yet  no  one  will  dispute  that 
the  ancient  Teutons  were  strong  and  healthy. 
These  ancient  barbarians  seem  to  have  learned  by 
experience  that  before  this  age  sexual  maturity 
is  not  yet  complete.  In  fact,  Eulenburg  found 
that  the  combined  statistics  teach  that  complete 
sexual  maturity  is  reached  by  the  woman  only 
after  the  twentieth  year  of  age,  and  by  the  man 
not  before  the  twenty-fifth  year,  i 

Besides  the  historic  proof  there  are  daily  ex- 
amples which  show  the  compatibility  of  chastity 
with  health  at  any  age.  Many  young  men,  en- 
gaged to  be  married,  remain  chaste  for  long  pe- 


170  GBNE8IS 

riods  without  detriment  to  their  health,  although 
often  living  in  continuous  sensual  excitement. 
Patients  suffering  from  venereal  diseases  abstain 
during  long  periods  of  treatment  without  any  im- 
pairment of  health.  Men  remain  chaste  and 
healthy  during  long  periods  when  their  wives  are 
ill.  Athletes,  training  for  some  physical  contest, 
remain  in  enforced  continence  and  yet  healthy. 
Seafaring  men  are  often  continent  for  long  pe- 
riods without  injury. 

These  few  examples  show  that  abstinence  is  not 
detrimental  to  health.  In  fact  no  other  condition 
of  life  is  more  thoroughly  consistent  with  perfect 
mental  and  physical  vigor  than  absolute  chastity. 
The  instinct  only  needs  to  be  controlled.  Con- 
tinence is  only  a  matter  of  habit.  When  the  young 
man  has  not  been  debased  by  vile  practices,  it  is 
usually  a  comparatively  easy  task  to  be  continent 
and  requires  no  extraordinary  effort.  Besides 
every  year  of  voluntary  effort  at  chastity  renders 
the  task  easier  by  force  of  habit.  The  Talmud 
knew  this  when  it  said 

"yiv  n^y-ioi  nm  wt?»  DINS  e»  JBP  -ON,, 
"There  is  a  small  member  in  the  body  of  a  man 
which  is  always  hungry  if  one  is  trying  to  satisfy 
it,  and  is  always  satisfied  if  one  starves  it." 

Hence  when  the  young  man  has  been  taught 
the  advisability  of  sensual  control,  when  the  posi- 
tive assurance  has  been  given  to  him  that  total 
abstinence  can  be  maintained  without  loss  of  power 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      171 

and  when  his  fears  of  impairing  his  health  and 
potency  have  been  dispelled,  he  will  exercise  his 
will-power  and  refrain  from  a  departure  from 
moral  standards. 

In  our  big  cities  sensual  control  is  surely  made 
very  hard  for  the  young  man.  The  unfortunate 
phase  of  the  life  in  a  large  city  is  that  it  introduces 
the  youth  to  temptations  and  vicious  conditions. 
Vice  is  obtruding  upon  him  at  every  nook  and 
corner.  A^  vile  so-called  literature,  a  suggestive 
perverse  art  and  an  obscene  stage  panders  his  sen- 
sual curiosity.  But  because,  forsooth,  it  is  hard 
to  control  that  does  not  mean  that  he  has  to  yield 
to  temptation.  It  is  true  that  the  sexual  appetite 
may  assume  imperiousness,  but  only  when  the  im- 
agination is  constantly  fed  by  lascivious  thoughts 
and  sensual  images. 

But  the  trouble  is  not,  says  Siebert,  that  boys 
and  girls  become  sensually  mature  earlier  than 
they  could  judiciously  enter  into  matrimony,  the 
trouble  lies  in  the  fact  that  boys  can  not  see  why 
they  should  abstain  from  a  tickling  amusement, 
and  that  girls  are  haunted  by  the  menacing  pros- 
pect of  being  condemned  to  lead  a  barren  unneces- 
sary existence,  where  the  flower  might  wither 
without  bearing  the  proper  fruit.  Herein  lies  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  continence,  the  youth  does  not 
know  the  ethical  "why,"  especially  in  our  modern 
times  with  its  religious  laxity.  The  ethics  of  re- 
ligion, even  in  its  best  days,  had  not  had  the  power 


172  GENESIS 

to  control  sensual  passion  and  create  total  ab- 
stinence, although  religion  has  preached  the  same 
for  the  last  two  thousand  years.  In  modern  times 
with  the  almost  divine  worship  of  the  personality 
of  the  individual  the  religious  motive  for  chastity 
seems  to  fail  entirely. 

Hence  we  will  have  to  try  the  ethics  of  sex- 
hygiene  and  the  ethics  of  evolution.  If  the  theory 
of  evolution  is  right,  and  the  purpose  of  our  be- 
ing in  this  world  is  to  assert  life,  then  the  aim 
of  life  can  not  be  the  single  individual  but  the 
species,  i.  e.,  the  offspring.  The  child,  therefore, 
or  what  is  here  the  same,  the  family  will  have  to 
furnish  the  motive  for  man's  continence.  The  im- 
portance to  the  family  of  the  chastity  of  women 
has  been  recognized  from  the  earliest  history,  as 
shown  by  the  author  in  a  former  essay.  Now  it 
is  time  to  teach  the  man  the  importance  of  his 
chastity  to  the  family,  state  and  nation.  The  aver- 
age man,  says  Hepborn,  in  his  heart,  does  not  ac- 
knowledge to  himself  that  there  is  any  competent 
reason  why  he  should  control  his  passion  beyond 
the  sentimental  idea  of  the  justice  of  men's  re- 
maining chaste  if  they  require  it  of  women.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  shown  to  the  man  that  there 
is  also  an  important  racial  reason  for  him  to 
abandon  promiscuous  life. 

If  it  is  shown  to  the  young  man,  at  a  time  when 
his  heart  and  mind  are  still  in  thrall  of  the  early 
and  eternal  poetry  of  the  race,  that  it  is  as  im- 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  TO  EIGHTEEN  YEARS      173 

portant  to  humanity  that  he  should  be  chaste  as 
it  is  for  the  woman  to  be  pure,  then  he  will  re- 
frain from  illicit  indulgence.  The  young  man 
will  surely  require  settled  principles,  a  firm  pur- 
pose and  a  strong  will,  if  he  desires  that  sensual 
passions  and  propensities  should  not  dominate 
and  control  him.  But  if  the  training  of  his  will- 
power has  begun  from  early  childhood,  thus  effect- 
ing the  needed  self-discipline,  and  if  disgust 
against  everything  vulgar,  as  the  company  of  lax 
women,  has  been  implanted  in  his  heart,  he  will 
find  the  means  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  vice  and 
to  avoid  the  contamination  by  meretricious  venery. 
The  latter  will  surely  infect  him,  it  being  only 
a  matter  of  time  when  it  happens.  The  young 
man  will  exercise  continence  if  he  has  been  taught 
that  his  sensual  yearnings  are  to  be  restrained  like 
his  propensity  to  overeat,  to  overdrink  or  to  over- 
exercise.  Because  he  wants  a  thing,  says  Keyes, 
it  is  not,  therefore,  necessarily  good  for  him  that 
he  should  have  it,  but  often  harmful.  The  impe- 
rious instinct  which  decrees  the  perpetuation  of 
the  race,  says  Lewis,  can  be  controlled  and  directed 
aright  by  the  consistent  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
When  the  young  man  has  been  taught  the  dignity 
of  virility,  when  he  has  learned  that  purity  is  con- 
ducive to  bodily  development,  while  vice  carries 
with  it  the  most  serious  diseases  in  its  train  and 
the  danger  not  only  to  ruin  his  own  life  but  also 
the  health  of  his  future  bride  and  of  the  entire 


174  GENESIS 

progeny,  he  will  not  stoop  to  vice  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  desires.  The  average  man,  says  Mor- 
row, is  not  a  criminal,  he  does  not  wreck  the  life 
and  health  of  his  wife  and  children  knowingly 
and  wilfully.  In  most  cases  he  does  it  through 
ignorance  of  the  nature  and  terrible  consequences 
of  the  disease. 

If  the  young  man  has  learned  in  time  the  re- 
sponsibility and  duty  of  the  man  towards  the 
woman,  if  he  has  been  made  aware  of  the  fact  that 
one  false  step  ruins  the  girl  irremediably  for  her 
entire  life,  he  will,  under  no  circumstances,  ever 
seduce  an  innocent  girl.  He  will  treat  every 
woman  he  meets  with  in  life  as  he  wishes  his  own 
sister  or  future  wife  to  be  treated  by  others. 

The  young  man  has  to  learn  that  every  union 
of  bodies  without  the  harmony  of  the  souls  is 
humiliating  and  immoral.  That  does  not  mean 
that  we  should  impart  the  idea  to  our  youth  that 
the  sexual  impulse  is  something  low  and  bestial, 
as  some  moralists  would  like  us  to  believe.  On  the 
contrary,  we  must  teach  our  youth  that  a  healthy 
and  natural  exercise  of  the  human  organism  is  a 
precious  blessing  that  must  not  be  squandered  and 
recklessly  defiled.  We  must  teach  the  young  man 
that  for  the  future  offspring's  sake  the  monogamic 
marriage  is  the  only  one  which  the  ideal  man  will 
resort  to.  Promiscuity  destroys  the  relations  of 
the  young  companionship.  To  form  the  healthy 


CHILDREN  SIXTEEN  '1 0  EIGHTEEN    YEARS    175 

germ  of  society  marriage  must  be  unitary  and 
permanent. 

The  leading  of  an  hygienic  life  will  help  the 
young  man  a  great  deal  to  remain  continent  until 
marriage.  He  will  have  to  avoid  all  stimulating 
food  and  he  will  have  to  use  drinks  as  coffee,  tea 
and  alcohol  with  great  moderation.  The  employ- 
ment of  cold  sponging,  daily  cold  baths  and  vigor- 
ous muscular  exercise  will  greatly  facilitate  con- 
tinence. Above  all,  the  avoidance  of  all  sensual 
thoughts  and  fancies  is  of  great  importance.  The 
constant  concentration  of  the  mind  upon  sensual 
thoughts  and  images  establishes  a  condition  akin 
to  genuine  masturbation.  This  constant  dwelling 
upon  sensual  images  and  thoughts,  which  consti- 
tute mental  masturbation,  weakens  the  power  of 
resistance  and  must,  therefore,  be  strictly  avoided. 

One  of  the  best  means  to  prepare  the  youth  for 
family  life  is  coeducation.  The  familiar  inter- 
course of  boys  and  girls  in  the  kindly  presence  of 
their  teachers  is  of  great  advantage.  To  prevent 
or  appease  the  morbid  craving  of  a  natural  appe- 
tite it  is  only  necessary  that  the  sexes  should  com- 
mingle without  too  much  restraint  by  conversing, 
singing  or  even  dancing  in  a  decent  orderly  man- 
ner. Coeducation  effects  the  development  of  re- 
lations between  the  sexes  free  from  sensual  pas- 
sions. The  daily  coexistence  of  the  sexes  dimin- 
ishes the  sexual  appetite  and  prevents  masturba- 
tion and  homosexuality.  The  daily  association  of 


176  GENESIS 

boys  and  girls  in  the  class  room  has  the  effect  of 
making  the  sexes  regard  one  another  with  a  feel- 
ing of  indifference.  Children  do  not  feel  them- 
selves as  sex  beings,  and  their  fellowship  excludes 
entirely  any  sensual  excitation.  If  both  sexes  are 
in  constant  company,  sensual  inclinations  will 
arise  much  later,  just  as  there  is  no  erotic  feeling 
among  brothers  and  sisters.  Young  people  who 
have  met  in  the  august  presence  of  wisdom  and 
science,  who  have  assisted  each  other  in  the  noble 
operations  of  the  intellect  in  unraveling  the 
problems  of  the  ages  and  in  building  the  structure 
of  the  social  world  will  have  the  proper  knowledge 
of  each  other's  character  and  the  true  insight  into 
sympathy  and  compatibility.  The  phantasy  would 
not  be  so  heated  in  forming  a  picture  of  the  other 
sex,  and  youthful  indiscretions,  when  both  sexes 
get  out  into  the  world,  would  be  of  very  rare  oc- 
currence. The  mischief  arising  from  the  separa- 
tion of  the  sexes  during  the  period  of  education 
is  such  as  to  make  their  coeducation  a  necessity. 
The  mystery  now  existing  among  the  sexes  creates 
the  desire  to  solve  it.  The  sexes  are  then  carried 
away  by  the  ardor  of  the  chase.  Coeducation  re- 
moves the  mystery  and  does  away  with  the  chase. 
The  forbidden  fruit  loses  its  charm  as  soon  as  it 
appears  no  longer  to  be  forbidden.  Coeducation 
thus  produces  the  cool  purity  of  experience  which 
is  more  lovely  and  more  healthy  than  the  hectic 
intensity  of  repression. 


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INDEX 


PAGE 

Adnate  plants   77 

Adoration  of  sex 9 

Age,  classification  of  child's 14 

Aim  of  sexual  pedagogy 56 

Altruism,  noble  traits  of 17 

Amoeba,  propagation  of 73 

Ancients  and  sexuality 9 

Anatomy  of  the  flower 78 

Androcele    79 

Animal  and  vegetable  cells,  identity  of 90 

Animals,  colonies  of 100 

Animals,  menstruation  in 125 

Animals,  reproductive  cells  of 102 

Animals,   unicellular 90 

Anther 80 

Art,  hypocrisy  in 52 

Assaults  upon  children 33 

Aster  93 

Athletes  and  continence 170 

Attraction  of  cells 76 

Baby,  new — in  the  family 66 

Binary  fission 97 

Blastula 109 

Blindness,  gonorrhoea  cause  of 147 

Bodies,  polar 105,  119 

Body,  handling  any  parts  of 63 

183 


184  GENESIS 

PAGE 

Buttocks,  touching  infants' 58 

Calyx   77 

Candor,  natural 25 

Catamenial,  symptoms  of — period 128 

Cause,  gonorrhoea — of  sterility 146 

.Causes  of  prostitution 158 

Causes,  removal  of — of  masturbation 133 

Cell    71 

Cell,  fertilization  of 103 

Cell-hunger   100 

Cells,  attraction  of 76 

Cells,  identity  of  animal  and  vegetable 90 

Cells,  reproduction  of 103 

Cells,  somatic   104 

Cells,  sperm    101 

Central  spindle 94 

Centrosome   91 

Change  of  policy  in  sex  education 54 

Charm  of  sexuality 25 

Chastity,  fig-leaf 26 

Chastity  and  modern  school  of  literature ....  50 

Child,  mother's  lesson  for 67 

Child  and  pruriency 23 

Child,  warnings  to  be  given  to 69 

Children,  assaults  upon 33 

Chilodon,  conjugation  of 99 

Christianity  and  sex 9 

Chromatin  91 

Classification  of  child's  age 14 

Co-education  and  incontinence.  .                ....  175 


INDEX  185 

PAGE 

Colonies  of  animals r 100 

Color  of  flowers 88 

Corolla    77 

Competition  with  vice 48 

Complete  flower 78 

Complications  of  gonorrhoea 144 

Confidence,  child's — in  parents 37,  50 

Confusion,  moral 49 

Conjugation   74 

Conjugation,  first  step  of 98 

Consequences  of  gonorrhoea  in  women 146 

Continence  of  ancient  Teutons 169 

Continence  of  athletes 170 

Continence,  ethical  reason  for 172 

Continence,  harmlessness  of 162 

Continence  and  hygienic  life 175 

Continence  in  large  cities 171 

Continence  in  Talmud 170 

Contractation,  impulse  of 126 

Coquetry    62 

Cross-fertilization 103 

Curiosity  of  children 30 

Cytoplasm   91 

Damage  to  modesty 12 

Day-dreamers    135 

Degradation  of  masturbation 137 

Degradation  of  sentiment 47 

Detumescence,  impulse  of 126 

Differentiation  of  reproductive  cells  of  ani- 
mals  .                                                             ,  102 


186  GENESIS 

PAGE 

Dignity  of  virility 173 

Dioecious  plants 79 

Diseases,  social 139 

Dissoluteness    168 

Early  masturbation 41 

Egg-cells    101 

Egg,  grafting  of 122 

Ejaculation    116 

Embryonic  life 110 

Epididymis    116 

Equatorial  plate 96 

Ethical  reason  for  continence 172 

Evil,  alleged — of  education 22 

Evil  of  ignorance 41 

Exploitation,   sexual 156 

Extravagance,  evil  of 48 

Fallopian  tubes 113 

Family,  new  baby  in  the 66 

Fertilization  of   cell 103 

Fertilization,  cross    103 

Fertilization,  external    112 

Fertilization,  internal    112 

Fertilization  of  plants 84 

Fertilization,  process  of 108 

Fig-leaf  chastity 26 

Fission,  binary 97 

Fission  of  monads 100 

Fissiparous   reproduction 74 

Flowers,  anatomy  of 78 

Flowers,  color  of 88 


INDEX  187 
PAGE 

Flowers,  complete   78 

Flowers,  hermaphroditic    , .  79 

Flowers,  odor  of 88 

Flowers,  perfect   78 

Flowers,  unisexual   79 

Follicle,  Graafian 118 

Frequency  of  gonorrhoea 142 

Frequency  of  masturbation 60 

Frigidity    136 

Fruit 89 

Gastrula 110 

Gemmiparous   reproduction 74 

Generation,  sexual 74 

Germ-plasm    104 

Gonorrhoea,  cause  of  blindness 147 

Gonorrhoea,  cause  of  sterility 146 

Gonorrhoea,  complications   of 144 

Gonorrhoea,  consequences  of — in  women.  .  .  .  146 

Gonorrhoea,  frequency  of 142 

Glands,    sexual 102 

Graafian  follicle 117 

Grafting  of  egg 122 

Gynocele    79 

Handling  of  parts  of  body 63 

Harmlessness  of  continence 162 

Hermaphroditic   flowers 79 

Hermaphroditic  species 102 

Hunger,  cell 100 

Hygienic  life  and  continence 175 

Hypocrisy  in  art 52 


188  GENESIS 

PAGE 

Identity  of  vegetable  and  animal  cells 90 

Ignorance,  evil  of 41 

Ignorance  of  parents 20 

Immortality  of  protozoa 97 

Impossibility  of  maintaining  ignorance 28 

Impotence    136 

Impregnation,  mechanism  of 119 

Impulse  of  contractation 126 

Impulse  of  detumescence 126 

Impurity  and  liquor , 159 

Impurity  and  love  of  pleasure 160 

Impurity,  prophylaxis  of 159 

Impurity  and  vanity 159 

Infant,  buttocks  of 58 

Information,  necessity  of 36 

Innocent,  ruin  of — girls 43 

Insects  and  pollen 87 

Instinct  of  sex 49,  127 

Internal  fertilization 112 

Lesson,  mother's — for  child 67 

Libertines 32 

Life,  average  length  of — of  prostitutes 158 

Life,  embryonic    110 

Life,  hygienic — and  continence 175 

Life,  prudery  and  daily 52 

Linin-net  91 

Liquor  and  impurity 159 

Literature,  modern — and  sexuality 160 

Literature,  modern  school  of — and  chastity. .  51 

Literature,  vile  34 


INDEX  189 
PAGE 

Man,  duty  of — toward  woman 174 

Marble,  nakedness  of  ancient 51 

Marriage  with  profligates 154 

Masturbation,  degradation  of. 137 

Masturbation,  early   41 

Masturbation,  frequency    of 60 

Masturbation,  prevention  of  early 61 

Masturbation,  removal  of  causes  of 133 

Masturbation,  results  of — in  children 42 

Masturbation,  sequelae   135 

Masturbation,  servants  and 42,  58 

Masturbation,  symptoms  of 134 

Masturbation  and  uncleanliness 41,  59 

Matrimony,  sacrament  of 17 

Mechanism  of  forwarding  pollen 85 

Mechanism  of  impregnation 119 

Menstruation 121 

Menstruation  in  animals 125 

Menstruation,  a  period  of  danger 128 

Metamorphosis    Ill 

Minister  as  teacher 21 

Mitosis  91 

Modern  literature  and  sexuality 160 

Modesty,  damage  to 12 

Monads,  fission  of 100 

Monoecious  plants 79 

Monogamic  relations ^ 44 

Moral   confusion 49 

Morality,  sentiment  of 39 

Morula ,  109 


190  GENESIS 

PAGE 

Mother,  her  lesson  for  child 67 

Nakedness  of  ancient  marble 51 

Natural  candor 25 

Natural  instructors 12 

Necessity  of  information 36 

Nectar  of  flowers 88 

Nucleus  of  cell 91 

Nudity 26,  r>2,  56.  64 

Odor  of  flowers 88 

Ostrich,  like  the 35 

Outside  fertilization 112 

Ovaries 102 

Ovary  of  plant 83 

Overvaluation  of  sex 160 

Ovule  of  plant 83 

Ovum,  ripening  of 118 

Parents,  child's  confidence  in 37,  50 

Parents,  ignorance  of 20 

Parents,  timidity    of 20 

Parthogenetic   segmentation 105 

Pedagogy,  aim  of  sexual 56 

Perfect  flower 78 

Perianth   78 

Period,  danger  at  the  time  of 128 

Period,  symptoms  of  catamenial 128 

Petals    77 

Phanerogamic  plants 77 

Physician  as  teacher 21 

Pistil   77.  82 

Plant,  ovule  of 83 


INDEX  191 

PAGE 

Plants,  dioecious    79 

Plants,  fertilization   of 84 

Plants,  monoecious    79 

Plants,  ovaries  of 83 

Plants,  reproduction  of 72 

Plasm-germ 104 

Plate,  equatorial 96 

Pleasure,  love  of — and  impurity 160 

Polar  bodies 105,  119 

Policy,  change  of — in  sex  education 54 

Pollen   82 

Pollen,  insects    and 87 

Pollen,  mechanism  of  forwarding 85 

Pollen,  wind   and 87 

Pollution   129 

Prevalence  of  syphilis 148 

Prevention  of  early  masturbation 61 

Process  of  fertilization 108 

Proclivities,  sexual 25 

Profligates,  marriage  with 154 

Propagation  of  amoeba 73 

Propagation  of  plant  and  animal 72 

Prophylaxis  of  impurity 159 

Prostitutes 153 

Prostitutes,  average  length  of  life  of 158 

Prostitution,  causes  of 158 

Protophyta    .T -. .  .  .  91 

Protozoa    91 

Protozoa,  immortality  of 97 

Prudery   26 


192 


GENESIS 


PAGE 

Prudery  of  daily  life 52 

Pruriency  and  child 23 

Public  school '32 

Reason,  ethical — for  continence 172 

Relations,  monogamic 44 

Relations  of  sex  to  development 53 

Removal  of  causes  of  masturbation 133 

Reproduction,  fissiparous    74 

Reproduction,  gemmiparous 74 

Reproduction  of  plants 72 

Reproductive  cells 103 

Results  of  masturbation  in  children 42,  .">;> 

Ripening  of  the  ovum 118 

Ruin  of  innocent  girls 43 

Sacrament  of  matrimony 17 

Schizomycetes   99 

School,  modern — of  literature  and  chastity.  .  51 

School,  public    32 

Segmentation,  parthogenetic 105 

Self-control .  .  .  161 

Seminal,    first — emission 27 

Seminal  vesicles 116 

Sensuality  and  modern  literature 160 

Sentiment,  degradation  of 47 

Sentiment  and  morality 39 

Sepals   77 

Sequelae  of  masturbation * 135 

Servants  and  masturbation 31,  42,  58 

Sex,  adoration  of 9 

Sex  and  Christianity 9 


INDEX  193 
PAGE 

Sex,  instinct  of 49,  127 

Sex,  overvaluation  of 160 

Sexual,  aim  of — pedagogy 56 

Sexual  exploitation   156 

Sexual  generation 74 

Sexual  glands 102 

Sexual  proclivities   25 

Sexuality,  ancients  and 9 

Sexuality,  charm  of 25 

Shame,  perverse  sense  of 51 

Shame,  sense  of 23 

Silence,  prevailing  in  sex  matters 17 

Skeins    93 

Social   diseases 139 

Society  for  moral  prophylaxis 10 

Somatic  cells 104 

Species,  hermaphroditic 102 

Spermatozoon    113 

Sphincter,  urethral   117 

Sphincter,  vesical  .  . 117 

Sterility  caused  by  gonorrhoea 146 

Stamen    80 

Stigma   82 

Style 82 

Symptoms  of  catamenial  period 128 

Symptoms  of  masturbation 134 

Syphilis,  prevalence  of 148 

Syphilis,  sequelae  of 149 

Tadpole    Ill 

Talmud  and  continence.  .  170 


194  GENESIS 

PAGE 

Temptation    31 

Testicles 102 

Teutons,  ancient — and  continence 169 

Thigh-crossing  59 

Timidity  of  parents 20 

Trait,  noble — of  altruism 17 

Tubes,    Fallopian 113 

Unchastity,  masculine 45 

Uncleanliness  and 'masturbation 41,  59 

Unicellular  animals 90 

Unisexual  flowers 79 

Urethral  sphincter 117 

Vagina    116 

Vanity  and  impurity 159 

Variation  103 

Vegetable  and  animal  cells,  identity  of 90 

Vesical  sphincter 117 

Vesicles,  seminal 116 

Vice,  competition  with 48 

Vile  literature 34 

Virility,  dignity  of 173 

Warnings  to  be  given  to  child 69 

Will-power,  exercise  of 164 

Wind  and  pollen 87 

Woman,  man's  duty  toward 173 

Yolk  .                                                                .  105 


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